Science says our prejudices of overweight people are getting worse
Yet, at the same time, we become less racist and homophobic.
Well, we have good news and bad news. According to new research from Harvard University, Americans have become less biased towards others on the basis of their race and sexual orientation over the past decade, which is obviously a major victory for progress. The bad news? Despite all the efforts ofThe positive body movementThere has been an increase in our collective bias against people based on their weight.
The study, which was published in the newspaperPsychological science, analyzed 4.4 million online tests of explicit and implicit attitudes towards persons based on sexual orientation, race, skin tone, age, disability and body weight Over 13 years. What they have discovered is that, in general, people become less solicited on an explicit level when it comes to all six categories. But when it comes to implicit bias - those we are not aware - it's a different story.
"Contrary to the hypothesis that implicit attitudes do not change, we found that, in fact, three of the six implicit attitudes showed a change" ""TESSA CHARLESWORTH, a doctoral student in psychology at Harvard University and the main author of this study,at wburbur.com. "Attitudes of sexuality, at an implicit level, have changed about 33% over the last decade, while the breed and perception of skin skin have also changed at a slower pace: about 17 % for breed attitudes and 15% for the attitude of the skin. "
But implicit biases have not changed much for age or disability, and "in fact, body weight attitudes have even shown a slight tendency to worse over time." Specifically, the percentage of pro-thin preferences (VS. Gras) increased from 75% in 2007 to 81% in 2016.
This is particularly bad news, since research shows that Americans become heavier every year, with a recent CDC report evenAffirming that the average American is now technically obese.
The discovery was a surprise for Charlesworth and his colleagues.
"[It's] knocking because he compensates the simple story that everything is better," she said. "There are things that get worse. And, of course, the question could be as follows: Why? What is specific on the attitude of body weight?"
His theory is that people often consider a body weight like something that people have control and are therefore more likely to be judged on this. She also believes that this can have something to do with the negative way in which we tend to discuss a body weight at the end, given the national discussion on the obesity epidemic.
But it's all speculative, and Charlesworth is currently working on a new document that will seek to explore why some attitudes are changing in America while others are not and that these changes occur to all Americans or some demographic groups.
To acclaim, it seems that "the decline in the anti-gay bias seems to be more of a cultural or period effect, something that happens to everyone in society, rather than just to specific groups." With a breed and skin skin, however, "the young generation seems to lead change", as they found, "there were more slow changes between Xers generation and baby boomers."
By its very nature, an implicit bias is a prejudice that you may not even know that you have, so if you really want to go digging in your subconscious, you can go toImplicit project To take an online test, your implicit associations on race, sex, sexual orientation, self-esteem, anxiety, alcohol and more. And for more unconscious prejudices, checkthe secret ways that people judge you on your body type.
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