Online test reveals: Are you fattist or thinnist?

30th October 2008

Online test reveals: Are you fattist or thinnist?

posted in Body Image, Fat Bias, New Research |

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff discusses race and the presidential campaign in today’s op-ed column. He mentions a study conducted of Californian college students, many of whom support Obama, that found that the research subjects unconsciously perceived Obama as less American even than the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Linked to are two different online implicit association tests that measure the way the unconscious mind works offered by Harvard and the University of Chicago for readers to test their own responses.

Harvard offers a variety of tests beyond race that measure responses to age, disability, gender and science, weapons and religion. Also offered is a test that reveals preferences for thin people relative to fat people. I took the test and little surprise, it revealed that I have a “slight automatic preference for Fat People compared to Thin People.” And even less shocking to fat folk everywhere, I am in the minority of test-takers. Of some 199,329 IAT scores recorded:

The test isn’t scientific proof, of course. It measures responses by rapidly flashing images and words, so responses may vary depending on a person’s reflexiveness and ability to follow directions. The website itself readily insists that the tests “are not perfectly accurate by any definition of accuracy.” But generally, the stronger an association one has with a particular subject, the more rapid-fire and accurate answers tend to be. One of the FAQ Harvard receives is from test-takers who are surprised to find that they exhibit a surprising preference they’d rather not have. In this case, Harvard researchers recommend:

One solution is to seek experiences that could undo or reverse the patterns of experience that could have created the unwanted preference. This could mean reading and seeing material that opposes the implicit preference. It could mean interacting with people that provide experiences that can counter your preference. A more practical alternative may be to remain alert to the existence of the undesired preference, recognizing that it may intrude in unwanted fashion into your judgments and actions. Additionally, you may decide to embark on consciously planned actions that can compensate for known unconscious preferences and beliefs. This may involve acts in ways that you may not naturally act – for example, smiling at people who are elderly if you know you have a implicit preference for the young. Identifying effective mechanisms for managing and changing unwanted automatic preferences is an active research question in psychological science. The good news is that automatic preferences, automatic as they are, are also malleable.

Good news, indeed. Did you take the test? How’d you score?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 10:21 am and is filed under Body Image, Fat Bias, New Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On October 30th, 2008, Muppette said:

I actually scored as having a strong automatic preference for fat people to thin people, which for me shows that I have come a LONG way since before fat acceptance. I used to not only hate myself for being bigger, but I then projected those feelings onto other fat people. Now that I have found a greater love for myself, I have been trying to cultivate that love for other fat people too. Very interesting study, thanks for the link!

posted on October 30th, 2008 at 11:10 am

2 On October 30th, 2008, Fantine said:

That was very interesting, thanks for posting that link. I had a “slight automatic preference for Fat People” as well. I wonder if this is because I have been fat for my entire life, or if it’s a result of discovering FA. I’m willing to bet my result would have been different if I had taken this during the height of my self-loathing and body hatred.

posted on October 30th, 2008 at 11:13 am

3 On October 30th, 2008, tg said:

I took that just a few days ago and also scored “slight preference for fat people,” which shocked me since (1) although I was exposed to fat acceptance more than a decade ago when I met Nomy Lamm, it’s only been about five or six months that I have been more actively reading FA blogs and trying to figure out how to promote HAES through our employee wellness group (2) I am myself not fat (what’s with fat/thin dichotomy anyway?) and was hoping to come out at little to no preference.

I don’t think I’m biased against thin people; I did notice that many of the photos in the test seemed to have been altered in some way to make the face appear more fat or more thin. Did you notice anything similar or am I biased?

posted on October 30th, 2008 at 11:22 am

4 On October 30th, 2008, Karen said:

Augh. “Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for Thin People compared to Fat People.” At least it’s not strong or moderate…. Where I’d really want to be is in the no preference at all category. I’m surprised that that many test-takers are there, quite frankly.

posted on October 30th, 2008 at 11:45 am

5 On October 30th, 2008, Rosa said:

I’m in that 7% slight preference for fat people group, I think (i did a bunch of those tests a few years ago.)

I’ve always adored *other* fat people, it’s appylying that to myself that’s difficult.

posted on October 30th, 2008 at 11:56 am

6 On October 30th, 2008, Tari said:

I scored the slight fat preference, too, which is what I said in my assessment before taking the test, and jives with my general aesthetic preferences.

It was an interesting little test setup; what bugged me the most was the fact that they were clearly photoshopped fatties, and so didn’t look like *real* people to me…which I suspect probably skewed my results a little to the thin side.

posted on October 30th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

7 On October 30th, 2008, mccn said:

I have little to no automatic preference – I’m very curious about some of the other IATs, too (race, age), to see what my automatic preferences might be. At first I was disappointed – I wanted to prefer fat folks! But then I realized that actually, I want to prefer just folks and try not to be influenced by their weight (or age or race) – so I now feel better about that. I really appreciate the suggestion on how to change them, too.

posted on October 30th, 2008 at 1:08 pm

8 On October 30th, 2008, Tracey said:

I had little to no automatic preference as well.

Do you think the results would change dramatically if you had to associate fat and good from the beginning and THEN change gears and do it the other way around? I wonder how difficult it was for people just to reverse the task.

posted on October 30th, 2008 at 1:15 pm

9 On October 30th, 2008, Linda said:

Wow, I find my results absolutely shocking. I guessed that I’d score a slight preference for fat people — it told me that I instead have a *strong* preference for fat people. I find it surprising not only because I assumed my preference would be differet, but because I found the photoshopped pictures of fat people all very unattractive and I still have issues with my own fat body. Huh.

posted on October 30th, 2008 at 4:46 pm

10 On October 30th, 2008, DollyAnn said:

I got a slight automatic preference for fat people. I’m not really surprised; it makes sense to me. I don’t think I would have been surprised if I’d gotten preference for thin people either though given the culture we live in. Maybe it’s a credit to how little I pay attention to pop culture and the media? IDK

posted on October 30th, 2008 at 10:40 pm

11 On July 4th, 2009, Leah said:

I score slightly preferential to fat people. Then, I did the race test. Having figured out how the tests work, and REALLY not wanting to get racist test results, I was able to rig my results by slightly extending the time taken to identify positive words with European Americans (down with the man!). Guilt assuaged–Phew! I think I did the same thing unconsciously with the fat v. skinny test, because I was very conscious of my fat bias, angry about society’s fat bias, and thinking about changing my personal perceptions about the fat community. In my heart of hearts though, I know I have a bit more weeding to do before I can uproot all of the race and size based stereotypes I’ve learned.

posted on July 4th, 2009 at 3:44 am