Obesity and job discrimination: mediation via personality stereotypes?

Abstract

Does obesity lead to discrimination in hiring and promotion decisions? Business Week ( 1 ) reported a study in which male MBA's who were more than 20% overweight earned an average of $4,000 a year less than their peers of normal weight. The same source reported that obese women were rarely found in management and speculated that those making the hiring and promotion decisions view obesity as a symptom of laziness or inability to control oneself. The purpose of the present study was to confirm the discriminatory tendency and the rationale behind it. In the first experiment, subjecrs were students ( N = 4 2 ) in an undergraduate industrial psychology class. Ages ranged from 2 0 to 43 yr. (with 21-30 yr. being the modal and median category). Most of the students were part-time, working fulltime i n local high-tech or service firms. N o more than one or two in the entire sample could have been described as obese themselves. Subjects were asked to evaluate (on a I-to-10 scale of acceptability for the job) each of six candidates for the position of psychology professor. Half of the students had candidare A described as a man, half as a woman; half had candidate B described as age 33, half as age 63; half had candidate C described as married, half as divorced; half had candidate D described as a woman with two children; half had her described as having eight children; half had candidate E described as black, half had him described as white; half had candidate F described as 165 Ib., half as 425 Ib. There was no significant discrimination as to sex, age, race, marital status, or number of children. Although Mr. F had a mean rating of 7.3 ( S D = 2.3) when he was described as weighing 165 Ib., his rating was only 5.2 ( S D = 2.5) when he was described as weighing 425 Ib. ( t = 3.09, p < .01). In the second experiment, subjects were students ( N = 31) in an undergraduate human relations in business course. Ages ranged from 1 9 to 44 yr. (with 21-29 yr. being the modal and median category). Most of the students were part-time, working full-time in local high-tech or service firms. N o mote than one or two in the entire sample could have been described as obese. Subjects were asked to assess a sales worker for promotion ( o n a 1-to-10 scale) and then describe the worker on an adjective checklist. Again, those subjects Gho thought that the worker weighed 365 Ib. rated his promotion prospects much lower compared to when he was described as weighing 165 Ib. (Ms 7.4, S D = 2.0; vs 5.6, S D = 2.5; r = 2.58, f l < .02) . Nevertheless, weight had no significant ( p = . l o ) relationship with ascribed personality traits such as hard working, friendly, intelligent, conscientious, serious, or persistent. The condusion is that there is job discrimination against the severely obese, but this probably reflects the discriminator's cultural and aesthetic value system more than stereotypes about the personalities of obese persons, and the general advantage enjoyed by the physically attractive (2 , 3 ) .