Question: Do overweight people act differently to underweight people in every day life (nothing to do with food)?

Lowri Evans answered on 15 Mar 2016:

Hello,

I’m not sure if it’s that they behave differently due to their weight, or if they behave differently due to how people treat them because of their weight. Society judges very overweight people negatively, and although the nations waistlines are ever-growing and being larger is more the norm now than ever before, people are still quick to judge people based on their size and physical appearance.

This is like a backwards “halo effect”, which is something I’ve studied a lot. The halo effect essentially is that we tend to believe attractive people are nicer, more intelligent and more funny than they actually are. Research into the halo effect in schools found that when a teacher was seen as being warm and friendly, the students rated them as being more attractive, appealing and likeable. People treat overweight people as a reverse halo effect 🙁