IF YOU have done any traveling outside the United States, you might have noticed that your fellow Americans - on average - tend to be bigger than citizens from other countries.
Let's cut to the chase. Americans are generally overweight and more likely to be obese than other people.
So the results of a new study were not surprising. "Perceptions of nationality are malleable," writes a research team led by Stanford University psychologist Caitlin Handron. It reports that, in a series of studies, "overweight Asian individuals were perceived as significantly more American than normal-weight versions of the same people."
So if you want to overcome the stereotypical tag of appearing "foreign" or being an "other," the answer is not to pass up the Big Mac and fries. Put on those pounds.
University of Washington researchers believe this effect relates to common stereotypes that Asians are thin and Americans are heavy — so if someone of Asian heritage is heavy, then they appear to be more “American.”
The UW study comes at an especially charged time for discussions of American identity. In today’s political climate, beliefs — and often stereotypes — about race, ethnicity and religion factor into debates about who is “American.”
“In the U.S., there is a strong bias associating American identity with whiteness, and this can have negative consequences for people of color in the U.S.,” said Handron, who conducted the study while at UW. “We wanted to see whether ideas of nationality are malleable and how body shape factors into these judgments.”
Weight, Handron added, is just one of many cues people rely on when making judgments of someone else’s nationality.
Statistically speaking, being overweight is common among Americans: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that some 70 percent of U.S. adults are overweight or obese.
When the data is broken down by race, Asian Americans tend to be less obese than people of other racial and ethnic groups. The prevalence of obesity among Asian/Americans is 11.7 percent, among white Americans 34.5 percent, among Latino/Americans 42.5 percent, and among African/Americans, 48 percent. More specifically, within the U.S., Asian immigrants are significantly less likely to be overweight than native-born Asian Americans.
Population trends in obesity around the world, along with common stereotypes about who is “foreign,” helped inform the experiment, researchers wrote in the study. For example, did study participants view Asian and Latino/Americans as less American than white and black Americans?
Apparently, heaviness didn’t have the same effect on perceptions of other races. The weights of white, black, and Latino photo subjects had little influence on whether they were perceived to be American or not.
Population trends in obesity around the world, along with common stereotypes about who is “foreign,” helped inform the experiment, researchers wrote in the study. For example, did study participants view Asian and Latino/Americans as less American than white and black Americans?
Apparently, heaviness didn’t have the same effect on perceptions of other races. The weights of white, black, and Latino photo subjects had little influence on whether they were perceived to be American or not.
Sapna Cheryan, a UW associate professor of psychology and a co-author of the study, called the finding “an unusual possible protective benefit of being heavier for Asian Americans.”
“People in the U.S. often encounter prejudice if they are overweight — they may be mistreated by a customer service person, for example, or a health care provider. Weight can be an obstacle to getting good treatment,” Cheryan said. “We found that there was a paradoxical social benefit for Asian/Americans, where extra weight allows them to be seen as more American and less likely to face prejudice directed at those assumed to be foreign.”
Handron said the study also shows how perceptions reflect broader, systemic disparities.
“The lack of representation of Asian/Americans and other people of color in the media and positions of power reinforces associations between American identity and whiteness,” she said. “This work supports the call to recognize these inaccurate assumptions in order to interrupt the resulting harm being done to these communities.”
“People in the U.S. often encounter prejudice if they are overweight — they may be mistreated by a customer service person, for example, or a health care provider. Weight can be an obstacle to getting good treatment,” Cheryan said. “We found that there was a paradoxical social benefit for Asian/Americans, where extra weight allows them to be seen as more American and less likely to face prejudice directed at those assumed to be foreign.”
Handron said the study also shows how perceptions reflect broader, systemic disparities.
“The lack of representation of Asian/Americans and other people of color in the media and positions of power reinforces associations between American identity and whiteness,” she said. “This work supports the call to recognize these inaccurate assumptions in order to interrupt the resulting harm being done to these communities.”
But before you start trying to look more "American" by overeating, be aware that being overweight can have its own consequences related to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a propensity to heart disease.
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