Fat bias revealed in exercise stereotypes study

We perceive thinness as fit and healthy - even if we're looking at a thin person lounging in front of the TV. But if we see a fat person doing the same thing, we automatically think they're unfit, unhealthy and unmotivated. When it comes to exercise, however, body shape doesn't seem to influence us the same way: exercisers are perceived as motivated and healthy - whether they're buff and muscular, or average Joes - by active and inactive people alike. That's the message University of Alberta researchers got when they looked at how exercisers and non-exercisers perceived images and messages about exercising and sedentary behaviours.

"We were looking at stereotypes of active and inactive people and whether these stereotypes could be automatically activated," says behavioural scientist Tanya Berry, the study's lead author.

Researchers recruited 72 male and female undergraduate students, who were screened into the study based on their exercise schema - to what extent they thought of themselves as being physically active.

Researchers showed study participants a series of pictures including two images of "couch potatoes," one thin and one overweight; an image of super- fit, muscular men playing of the beach, and one of a man of average build jogging, and words both relevant and neutral to fitness and health.

Participants were asked to look at the pictures appearing randomly on a screen, then, as quickly as they could, say the colour of the word that appeared on the screen afterwards. If the word "exercise" was in blue, for example, participants had to say the word, "blue," rather than read the word "exercise."

"If you see the word 'exercise' and you are interested in the topic, your inclination is to read the word. If you are interested in the topic of exercise, the word "exercise" captures your attention, and the more you read the word," explains Berry. "Consequently, your response time would be slower to name the colour in which word appeared, because you're processing all of the information - the image, the word, the colour - and it takes you longer to be able to come out with the colour word ."

Berry hypothesized that pictures of the couch potatoes would activate stereotypes of laziness, lack of motivation and poor health, and, conversely, that pictures of active people would activate the stereotypes of good health, fitness and motivation. If a picture of a "couch potato" activated a stereotype and the word "lazy" followed the picture, participants are slower to name the colour because the idea of "laziness" was activated by the picture and they are reading and thinking about the word more.

"We found that, not surprisingly, the "couch potato" stereotype activated the stereotype - but only the overweight man. The implication is that if you're skinny and lying on the couch, that's alright," says Berry.

"The bad news is that the picture of the stereotypical overweight man really activated that stereotype. This ties into the weight bias and the stigma around being overweight, and the stereotype that overweight people are lazy and unmotivated and that skinny people are just fine, which isn't necessarily true."

Berry says she was surprised that non-exercising participants would show a slowdown when viewing images and words related to people exercising. "I thought the non-exercisers wouldn't show any effect because they don't care about exercise, but they did.

"Therefore the good news message is that it didn't matter whether participants saw the normal man exercising or the buff guys; both of those images activated the stereotypes of exercisers and the idea of healthy and active, fit and motivated."

With evidence that these stereotypes exist, Berry now wants to see if they influence exercise behaviour. "The overwhelming number of exercise messages (in the media) are to exercises to be attractive, which is why it is good news that it didn't matter which image of fitness our participants saw - whether they themselves were exercisers or not - it still activated these positive stereotypes."

The study was published in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport.