Obesity is 'disgusting'
01-September-2010
By Ella Feinburg Large
Australian research shows obesity, along with smokers and drug addicts, top the ‘most disgusting’ list.
African Americans, homosexuals, women, mentally ill people and rich people were also among the 16 different social groups that were presented to students.
Participants were asked, “How disgusted are you with (group)?”
Students were also asked to rate the degree to which they thought being a member of that group was under their control as well as how favourable they felt towards the group.
They also rated, on a scale from 1 to 9, to what degree they agreed with the statement “I find fat people disgusting”.
The students rated obese people as 4.29 (9 being most disgusting) coming third below drug addicts (5.37) and smokers (4.93) but more disgusting than politicians (4.17).
“Together, these studies suggest that disgust can be an important component of understanding negative attitudes toward obese individuals,” Dr Vartanian said.
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