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The Fat Suit Study


The fat suit study is an experiment which looks at how the weight of an eating companion influences the amount of food and the healthfulness of the eating behavior of those eating with that person. It is known that eating with other people. as well as looking at the picture of an overweight individual before eating affects how much one eats. The fat suit study was done by researchers Mitsuru Shimizu from University of Illinois, Katie Johnson from Mayo Medical School and Brian Wansink who is the director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University. The study demonstrated that people will consume larger portions of unhealthy food and smaller portions of healthier food when eating with an overweight person. These findings are consistent with the “lower health commitment” hypothesis and emphasizes the importance of deciding beforehand what to eat when eating with other people as well as to commit to that decision when choosing one’s food. Other researchers have also devised similar studies which looked at how what other people choose to eat will also affect one’s own consumption; this is often referred to as the “Copycat Effect”

In this Cornell study, 82 undergraduate students were recruited to eat a spaghetti and salad lunch. For that lunch, an actress with a normal BMI of 21 was enlisted and requested to wear a fat-suit which added 50 pounds to her original weight. The fat suit gave her a BMI of 29 which classified her as being overweight. One of the following four conditions was presented to each participant: the actress served herself healthfully (more salad than pasta) while wearing the prosthesis, she served herself the same healthy meal without the prosthesis, she served herself less healthfully (more pasta and less salad) while wearing the prosthesis, or she served herself the same less healthy meal without the prosthesis. Participants in each scenario were lined behind the actress such that they were able to view the actress serving herself before serving themselves. The weight of the food consumed by participants was recorded.

The researchers found that when the actress wore the fat-suit, and appeared overweight, the participants served and ate 31.6% more pasta regardless of whether she served herself mostly the pasta or the salad. When she wore the prosthesis and served herself more salad, the participants actually served and ate 43.5% less salad.

The results support the “lower health commitment” hypothesis which predicts that people eat more when eating with an overweight person possibly due to them being less attentive to their health commitment goal.


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