Culture, Ideology, and Antifat Attitudes

Research on antifat attitudes in the United States has shown the position of antifat attitudes in an ideological network and the importance of attributions of control to prejudice against fat people. To test the role of blame and ideology in antifat prejudice, the authors compared attitudes among students in the United States and Mexico. Mexican students were significantly less concerned about their own weight and more accepting of fat people than were U.S. students. Antifat attitudes in the United States were part of a social ideology that holds individuals responsible for their life outcomes and may derive from attributions of controllability over life events. Attributions of controllability were significantly less important in Mexico for predicting antifat attitudes, and antipathy toward fat people showed no evidence of being part of an ideological network. Prejudice toward fat people in the United States appears to have a significant ideological component.