According to data collected at Rice University and the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, overweight men are just as likely to be discriminated against as overweight women—specifically in the work place and retail stores.
The studies were helmed by psychology professors Enrica Ruggs and Mikki Hebl, who enlisted a group of non-overweight men to dress up in overweight prosthetics to see how they’d be treated differently in the real world.
“We were interested in looking at biases toward men who are heavy in employment settings,” Ruggs told PsyPost. “A lot of the research that has looked at weight stigmatization or discrimination toward heavy people has tended to focus on women. It’s perceived as more of a critical issue surrounding women, so we wanted to see if men experience some of the same types of detriments that women face.”
Ruggs and Hebl sent out a group of average-weight men to various retail stores, posing as job applicants as well as costumers. Those men were later dressed in overweight prosthetics and sent back to the stores to see if they were treated any differently. In both situations, the men who appeared to be overweight were subjected to higher levels of “interpersonal discrimination”—a form of discrimination that is so subtle it wouldn’t qualify as illegal.
“None of the overweight men were kept from applying for positions.But they did experience greater amounts of interpersonal discrimination or subtle negative behavior toward them,” Ruggs explained to PsyPost. “Employees they interacted with would try to end the interaction early, there was less affirmative behavior like less nodding or smiling; there was more avoidance types of behavior like frowning and trying to get out of the interaction.”
The studies even enlisted actors who pretended to be shopping while observing the interactions between the men and the stores’ staff. Their observations supported the theory that overweight men were deemed inferior, perhaps because of the stereotypes of heavier people being lazy or less professional.
“It’s really unfortunate. There are these really subtle influences that can have large negative effects on heavy men in the retail settings — that’s whether they’re applying for jobs, they’re actual employees or as customers,” Ruggs told PsyPost. “These findings are another reminder that there is still more work to be done in terms of creating equitable workplaces for all employees, potential employees and consumers.”
