The relationship between physical appearance concerns, disgust, and anti-fat prejudice

• No research had examined interrelationships between physical appearance concerns, disgust, and anti-fat prejudice.
• Physical appearance concerns and disgust are related to anti-fat prejudice in women.
• Disgust partially mediates relationships between appearance concerns and anti-fat prejudice in women.
• The associations were larger in women than men, though anti-fat prejudice is greater in men.

This study examined relationships between physical appearance concerns (fear of fat, body image disturbance; BIDQ), disgust, and anti-fat prejudice (dislike, blame), and tested whether disgust mediates relationships between physical appearance concerns and anti-fat prejudice. Participants (N = 1649; age = 28 years) provided demographic data and completed measures of anti-fat prejudice, tendency to feel disgust, and physical appearance concerns. Univariate, multivariate, and mediation analyses were conducted. Univariate and multivariate associations were found between fear of fat, BIDQ, disgust, and anti-fat prejudice for women. For women only, mediation analyses showed that disgust partially mediated relationships between physical appearance concerns and dislike of fat people. For men, univariate and multivariate relationships were found between fear of fat, and dislike and blame of fat people, but disgust was not related to anti-fat prejudice. Newer constructs centering on physical appearance concerns and disgust appear promising candidates for understanding anti-fat prejudice.