The affective and interpersonal consequences of obesity

• We study obesity with respect to the Stereotype Content Model (SCM).
• Obesity elicits the same affective and behavioral reactions as low competence.
• The association between obesity and low competence reflects a bias.
• Increasing perceptions of warmth may be just as effective as losing weight for curtailing discrimination towards the obese.
• Stigmatized individuals can shift their social categorization by signaling orthogonal, desirable traits.

The incidence of obesity in the United States has tripled over the past fifty years, posing significant challenges for organizations. We build on stereotype content research and offer an overarching framework to understand individuals’ affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses to obesity. Across five studies, we demonstrate that individuals associate obesity with perceptions of low competence. Perceptions of low competence predict affective (disgust, sympathy) and behavioral (low help, high harm) responses to obesity. Consistent with the BIAS Map (Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2007), these discriminatory responses are moderated by perceptions of warmth. We demonstrate that, in some cases, shifting perceptions of warmth is just as effective as losing weight for curtailing discrimination towards the obese. Our findings demonstrate that social categorization is labile and we offer prescriptive advice for individuals seeking to change the way others perceive them.