Stereotypes of obese female job applicants

Abstract

This experiment was conducted (1) to examine stereotypes about obese and nonobese female job applicants, and (2) to isolate the effects of obesity from the effects of physical attractiveness in these judgments. College students (n = 104) rated applicants for two different positions. The applicants' résumés either were accompanied by pictures of obese and nonobese targets who were matched in attractiveness or by written descriptions of obses and nonobese targets whose attractiveness was not described. A pretest confirmed that students who read these descriptions perceived nonobese targets as significantly more attractive than obese targets. Results showed that when attractiveness was controlled (i.e., the students saw pictures), students exhibited little negative stereotyping of obese applicants. In contrast, students who had to infer the target's attractiveness from a written description rated obsese applicants more negatively than nonobese applicants. These results, which occurred on one of the two résumés used, suggest that obese individuals sometimes are evaluated negatively, and that this is due to the physical unattractiveness associated with increased weight.