Negative Stereotypes: Does Seeing Overweight People Make Us Eat More?

Everything makes fat people eat more. That is a reason why they are fat.

Consumers will choose and eat more indulgent food after they see someone who is overweight - unless they consciously think about their health goals, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

"Why do people often think back on a pleasant evening with friends and realize that they ate more and worse food than they wish they had?" ask authors Margaret C. Campbell (Leeds School of Business) and Gina S. Mohr (University of Colorado, Boulder). If any of those friends carry a few extra pounds, just being in their presence could trigger what the authors call a "negative stereotype."

The research suggests that merely seeing someone who is strongly associated with an undesirable behavior leads to surprising increases in the behavior. "Seeing someone overweight leads to a temporary decrease in a person's own felt commitment to his or her health goal," the authors explain.

More meaningless excuses.