TV fuels bias against obese people, study finds
By Nanci Hellmich
USA Today
Overweight characters on TV are less likely to date and have sex than their slimmer counterparts, and they are more likely to be the butt of jokes and be seen chowing down, fueling possible bias against the heavyset, according to research being presented today.
ABC MediaNet
It's one of several new studies that examine attitudes toward the obese.
Overweight TV characters, including the one portrayed by Kathy Kinney on "The Drew Carey Show," are more likely to be the butt of jokes.
Researchers with Michigan State University looked at the portrayals of overweight characters from the top-10-rated prime-time fictional series for ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and WB during the 1999-2000 season. The series included "The Drew Carey Show," "The Practice," "NYPD Blue," "Touched by an Angel," " Ed," "The King of Queens" and "Boston Public."
They found:
• Heavyset women and men on TV had fewer romantic interactions than their thinner counterparts. They also were less likely to date and less likely to be seen talking about having sex or shown in sexual encounters.
• Larger women were almost twice as likely to be the object of humor as their thinner counterparts.
• Larger men were seen eating more often on TV than men of average weight.
• Heavyset characters were more likely to be ethnic minorities, older or unemployed.
• Three of 100 female characters on TV are obese. In real life, one of every four women is obese, which is roughly 30 pounds over a healthy body weight.
• About nine of every 10 women on TV are average weight or underweight, compared with half of women in the real world.
The research is being presented in Quebec at the annual meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity.
Some large characters were portrayed positively, such as Ellenor, a lawyer on ABC's "The Practice," and Molly on NBC's "Ed," but many shows such as NBC's "The West Wing" don't have heavyset characters at all, says researcher Bradley Greenberg, professor of communication and telecommunication at Michigan State.
"We don't expect television to suddenly go out and find 40 large characters, but we'd like television to be more sensitive in the portrayal of the large characters that they do use," Greenberg says.
In a study published today, Kelly Brownell, psychology professor at Yale University, and colleagues surveyed 84 health professionals who treat obesity.
The professionals showed less bias against the heavyset than the general population does, but even they tended to think of overweight people as lazy and unmotivated, and they considered them bad people, Brownell says.
Other research reveals a bias among college students and the general population. One study showed that 24 percent of nurses are "repulsed" by obese people, Brownell says.
"There are some important implications here," Brownell says. "People who are the victims of bias and discrimination experience negative effects on their general health, well-being and self-esteem.
"The next step is to see if we can eliminate this bias."
These studies were paid for by the Rudd Foundation of Oakdale, Calif., whose mission is to document, understand and improve the bias and stigma associated with obesity.
