A Comparison of Implicit and Explicit Weight Bias

A Comparison of Implicit and Explicit Measures of Weight Bias

Renee Szostak

Abstract

In the present study, the results of the fat-thin Implicit Association Test (IAT) were compared with the results of explicit surveys in ten Indiana University undergraduates.

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant correlation between subjects' results on the IAT and their responses in the explicit survey. Our survey was designed to measure the same bias that the IAT was measuring. We hypothesized that there would be a correlation between subjects' responses to the explicit surveys and the IAT but that the explicit survey responses would be less biased towards fat people than the results provided by the IAT due to subjects not wanting to admit their true preferences and a lack of introspective access to implicity assessed representations. No significant correlation was found between the IAT and the individual survey questions we chose to compare, although we did find a significant relationship between the scores on the IAT and the average of all responses to the survey questions for each individual. Our results also showed either a neutral or negative bias towards fat people on both measures. Due to the fact that the results of this study indicated a negative bias towards overweight people both implicitly and explicitly and such biases have shown to be detrimental, more active steps should be taken to reduce weight-related bias in an educational setting.

INTRODUCTION

In the present society, western culture idealizes and praises thinness while disparaging obesity. We are constantly bombarded with media in our society that associates being thin with happiness and beauty, and being fat with unhappiness and ugliness. A growing body of evidence has indicated that obese people are stigmatized and discriminated against in a number of areas (Wang et al., 2004). Research has documented widely held perceptions that those who are obese possess many negative characteristics, including flaws in personal effort and flaws in attractiveness, competence, and morality (Schwartz et al., 2005). Stereotypes and negative attitudes concerning obese people have been found at both the implicit and explicit levels (Schwartz et al.,2005). Implicit attitudes are the attitudes that people unconsciously hold towards something. They are said to reflect thoughts and feelings that people are either unwilling or unable to report due to self presentation concerns or because they are unaware of the biases they have in the first place (Schwartz et al., 2005). Explicit attitudes are the attitudes that people consciously hold towards something and are obtained using self-report measures.

In accordance with this previous research, the purpose of this study was to compare the implicit and explicit attitudes people held concerning fat people and thin people. To test these differences, we administered surveys that contained questions pertaining to peoples' explicit attitudes towards fat people as well as the implicit association test, or IAT. The IAT is used to measure implicit attitudes that people are either unwilling to admit due to either presentation concerns or because they are unaware of their unconscious biases(Schwartz et al.