Where Do You Look Visual Attention to Human Bodies across the Weight Spectrum in Individuals with Normal Weight or with Obesity

Abstract

Objective: We investigated how individuals with normal weight (NW) versus individuals with obesity (OB) visually explore human bodies varying in BMI. Methods: 16 OB (BMI 37.5 ± 7.7 kg/m²) and 35 NW (BMI 21.5 ± 1.6 kg/m²) visually explored 35 natural photographs and 25 avatars depicting male and female bodies ranging from normal weight to obesity. Gaze behaviour was assessed using eye tracking technology. Additionally, participants rated the attractiveness of all body stimuli. Results: A comparison of the displayed gaze behaviour shown by both participant weight classes indicates that regarding visual stimuli of obese natural bodies, all participants (OB + NW) looked at the waist longer, whereas regarding visual stimuli of normal-weight bodies, all participants viewed the head longer. Overall, OB spent less time looking at the bodies than NW. All participants rated normal-weight bodies as more attractive than obese bodies. However, the NW sample rated the depicted obese bodies as even less attractive than the OB sample did. Conclusions: TheBMI of the explored body, but not the observer's BMI, produces differences in the visual exploration of human bodies. The displayed exploration pattern of obese bodies can cautiously be interpreted as a ‘de-individualised' and ‘obesity-focused' perception. This tendency may prove in close relationship with the negative cultural views on obesity.

Influence of Body Mass Index and Gender on Stigmatization of Obesity

“…Kreuser et al have reported that indeed children with obesity were less active than their normal weight counterparts, assuming that they did not reach the amount of physical activity to prevent overweight [41]. It was reported people find individuals with obesity less attractive than their normal weight counterparts [42], which was also shown in the present study where participants without obesity attributed the adjective non-attractive more often to participants without obesity. However, these kind of studies may contribute to stereotypes in the general population and other groups [17].…”

Is an obesity simulation suit in an undergraduate medical communication class a valuable teaching tool? A cross-sectional proof of concept study

“…Moreover, the distinction between explicit and implicit biases should be the focus of attention when working with SPs wearing the OSS, because Sabin et al 44 found that there is only a weak correlation between explicit and implicit weight bias, thus arguing for these to be considered separately. Also, the work of Leehr et al ,10 who observed gaze behaviour in their participants, speaks for the necessity of additionally investigating an implicit ‘anti-obesity’ bias.…”

“…Alongside the health risks related to obesity, stigmatisation plays an important role for patients who are overweight or obese 7–9. Both conditions are imposed with a socially accepted stigma—when only implicitly measured via gaze behaviour,10 for highly experienced human resource professionals when deciding who to hire for a job9 and also in the context of public health institutions 7–9. Furthermore, overweight and obesity affect the patient–physician communication and interaction (eg, doctor shopping or losing trust in their attending physicians) due to stigmatisation 11–13.…”

Faced with one’s fear: Attentional bias in anorexia nervosa and healthy individuals upon confrontation with an obese body stimulus in an eye‐tracking paradigm

“…Given that identifying a body as one's own has been shown to alter the perception of its attractiveness (Voges et al., 2017), the unclear identification of individuals with headless bodies might have influenced participants’ attention deployment. And third, it might mask a differing exploration of underweight, normal‐weight, and overweight stimuli, as studies have shown that in normal‐weight stimuli (e.g., Leehr et al, 2018). Another limitation of our stimuli is the lack of a computer‐generated normal (or low) weight body as a control stimulus.…”