Weight bias in US candidate selection and election

Roehling, Patricia V.; Roehling, Mark V.; Brennan, Ashli; Drew, Ashley; Johnston, Abbey J.; Guerra, Regina G.; Keen, Ivy; Lightbourn, Camerra P.; Sears, Alexis H.

doi:10.1108/edi-10-2013-0081

Cited by 12 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…This study suggests that people who read these stigmatizing and unflattering remarks are likely to draw unfair conclusions about Christie’s (or any other large politician’s) leadership competence on the basis of negative often demeaning physical descriptions. As Roehling and colleagues (Roehling et al, 2009; Roehling et al, 2014) have shown, large-size politicians rarely make it past the primaries and only if they are male.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies have recently investigated how a candidate’s weight affects political outcomes. Roehling et al (2014) examined 126 candidate pairs who ran in senatorial elections in 2008 and 2012. They found that all obese and overweight females were eliminated in the primary, and in almost every instance, the thinner male candidate was elected.…”

Section: Obesity and Perceptions Of Competence Of Political Leadershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Obesity Stigma and Negative Perceptions of Political Leadership Competence

Bresnahan

Zhuang

Zhu

et al. 2016

American Behavioral Scientist

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This study investigated whether the leadership competence of an overweight candidate is affected by exposure to weight-stigmatizing and nonstigmatizing messages. Participants read one of four messages—a weight stigma, a health stigma, a competence, or a stigma-reducing message. Fat phobia, weight controllability, partisanship, political activism, and voting behaviors were also measured. Weight controllability bias interacted with the weight stigma message to produce lower evaluations of political leadership competence. Weight controllability also correlated with higher levels of fat phobia regardless of message exposure. The evidence suggests making stigmatizing comments in print/online against a candidate based on a physical characteristic like large size negatively biases public perceptions of political leadership competence. This study of negative competence evaluation directed toward a real politician confirms the findings of earlier experimental studies with fictitious fat politicians.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Obesity and Perceptions Of Competence Of Political Leadershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Obesity Stigma and Negative Perceptions of Political Leadership Competence

Bresnahan

Zhuang

Zhu

et al. 2016

American Behavioral Scientist

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“…Re and colleagues 71 show that individuals with faces indicating elevated BMI are rated lower in leadership traits. Similarly, Roehling and coauthors 18 find that obese individuals are less likely to emerge as candidates for political office and, when they do, receive lower absolute vote share and lower relative vote share compared to their more slender opponents. Figure 1 presents silhouettes of average people across a range of BMis controlling for height.…”

Section: K F D"mentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Evidence suggests individuals infer information that predicts election outcomes with as little as one second of exposure to a candidate's image. 3 Researchers have found evaluations of political leaders and election outcomes can be predicted with physical attributes of leaders such as attractiveness, 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 "looking the part" (e.g., competence), 3 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 votercandidate facial similarity, 12 masculinity-femininity, 13• 14 vocal communications, 15 • 16 • 17 obesity, 18 height, 19 • 20 • 21 sex, 22 • 23 and skin color. 24 Some scholars explain these effects by concluding physical features prime elements of modern leadership prototypes such as competence, intelligence, and leadership skills.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary preferences for physical formidability in leaders

Murray¹

2014

Politics and the Life Sciences

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ABSTRACT. This research uses evolutionary theory to evaluate followers' preferences for physically formidable leaders and to identify conditions that stimulate those preferences. It employs a population-based survey experiment (N;::: 760), which offers the advantages to internal validity of experiments and external validity of a highly heterogeneous sample drawn from a nationally representative subject pool. The theoretical argument proffered here is followers tend to prefer leaders with greater physical formidability because of evolutionary adaptations derived from humans' violent ancestral environment. In this environment, individuals who allied with and ultimately followed physically powerful partners were more likely to acquire and retain important resources necessary for survival and reproduction because the presence of the physically powerful partner cued opponents to avoid a challenge for the resources or risk a costly confrontation. This argument suggests and the results indicate that threatening (war) and nonthreatening (peace, cooperation, and control) stimuli differentially motivate preferences for physically formidable leaders. In particular, the findings suggest threatening conditions lead to preferences for leaders with more powerful physical attributes, both anthropometric (i.e., weight, height, and body mass index) and perceptual (i.e., attributes of being "physically imposing or intimidating" and "physically strong"). Overall, this research offers a theoretical framework from which to understand this otherwise seemingly irrational phenomenon. Further, it advances the emerging but long-neglected investigation of biological effects on political behavior and has implications for a fundamental process in democratic society, leader selection.

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“…The study of language, and particularly metaphor, requires in-depth understanding of a particular phenomenon (Crisp, Heywood, & Steen, 2002). Obese political candidates often experience ridicule and stigmatization that could deter them from continuing to run for political office (Roehling et al, 2014). Christie is a good focus for a case study about political news coverage that stigmatizes obesity.…”

Section: Study Rationalementioning

confidence: 99%