COBI, CRISTINA BUBB-LEWIS. Prejudice toward fat people: The development and validation of the Antifat Attitudes Test. Obes Res. 1997;5:297-307. Although the stigma of obesity in our society is well documented, the measurement of antifat attitudes has been a difficult undertaking. Two studies were conducted to construct and validate the Antifat Attitudes Test (AFAT). In study 1, college students (110 men and 175 women) completed the preliminary 54-item AFAT and specific indices of body image and weight-related concerns. Psychometric and factor analysis revealed a 47-item composite scale and three internally consistent factors that were uncorrelated with social desirability: Social/Character Disparagement, Physical/Romantic Unattractiveness, and Weight ControVBlame. Several body image correlates of antifat prejudice were identified, and men expressed more negative attitudes than women. Study 2 experimentally examined the effects of information about the controllability of weight on the antifat attitudes of 120 participants. Exposure to information on behavioral vs. biogenetic control led to greater blame of persons who are fat for their body size. The implications of the findings and the potential utility of the AFAT are discussed.LEWIS, ROBIN J, THOMAS F CASH, LORA JA-

Testing self‐discrepancy theories of body image, this investigation examined self‐perceived and idealized physical attributes among 66 men and 69 women, who were white, heterosexual college students. Physical attributes included body size, weight, height, muscularity, hair color and length, eye color, and female breast size. Physical ideals included personal ideals, assumptions about the other sex's ideals for one's own sex, and actual other‐sex ideals. Both sexes expressed significant self‐ideal discrepancies on most attributes, whether ideals were assessed from personal or perceived other‐sex standpoints. The sexes' discrepancies were often comparable in magnitude if the direction of discrepancy was ignored. Both sexes frequently exaggerated their assumptions of what the other sex idealized in the subjects' own sex. Particular self‐ideal discrepancies predicted subjects' global body image. The applied and empirical implications of these findings were considered for both social and clinical contexts.

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