Facial expressions often influence how individuals are perceived – for example, negative facial expressions can lead people to think individuals are older than they really are, while positive facial expressions can make people think those individuals are younger. Negative facial expressions also make people appear to be less trustworthy and approachable. So what other judgments do facial expressions influence?
Trent Weston and his colleagues at the University of Missouri-Kansas City published a study this April in Frontiers in Psychology that, for the first time, investigated if facial expressions – sad facial expressions, specifically – impacted judgments about body weight.
“This study is the first to examine whether sad affect modulates decision-making in the context of weight judgments,” the researchers wrote.
Weston’s study utilized 44 college students as participants. BMI was calculated using height and weight: one subject was underweight, 20 were normal weight, 18 were overweight, and 5 were obese. Participants then completed self-report questionnaires on topics of depression, attitudes toward obese individuals, and beliefs about obese people.
A weight judgment task on the computer was then completed that included sad and neutral faces of males and females ranging from normal weight to extremely obese. Participants were asked if they considered the face “normal” or “fat.”
The researchers found that in the task, sad male faces were categorized as “fat” more so than neutral male faces. This relationship also existed among female faces, but was not statistically significant.
These findings contribute to developing a better understanding the decision-making process people take for judging a person’s weight. The present study shows that emotion can greatly impact the judgments we make about the individuals around us.
“Obesity is a rapidly growing public health concern, and more than two–thirds of adults in the United States are overweight or obese,” Weston and his colleagues wrote in their study. “Besides the health risks of obesity itself, ‘being fat’ or fat-stigma is more than just a psychosocial stress. Indeed, overweight or obese individuals’ perception of being judged for their weight by others can negatively influence weight loss. Given the psychosocial implications of being judged as overweight or obese, it is important to better understand the perceptual decision-making processes underlying one’s judgment on another’s weight level.”
Beyond negative effects on things like cardiovascular health, obese individuals are more likely to have to deal with workplace discrimination, as well as being perceived as less attractive, less trustworthy, and less healthy than non-overweight individuals. Many overweight and obese individuals therefore experience negative psychological effects such as depression, increased stress, and low self-esteem.