How scale and mirror influence attitudes towards an obese figure

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"The current study evaluates anti-fat attitudes (AFA) relative to BMI, and whether these can be influenced via seeing oneself in a mirror or by weighing oneself. 134 female students assigned to four conditions: mirror; scale; scale and mirror; and control, had their BMI, appearance self-esteem, and AFA measured. To assess AFA a 12-item semantic differential was applied with an obese and average-weight image. Results showed that participants evaluated average-weight image as more beautiful, younger, happier, more responsible, more agile, harder-working, healthier, stronger, friendlier, more familiar, and yet more unfaithful relative to obese images. AFA was not related to BMI. Scale condition evoked the most AFA, while seeing oneself in a mirror resulted in the highest appearance self-esteem scores. Studies suggest that those without eating disorders who look in the mirror focus on positive body parts. Stepping on the scale seemed to make the issue of body-weight salient and accessible resulting in more elaborate and critical assessment of the obese image."