Shots - Health News Fri November 9, 2012 How Changing Visual
Cues Can Affect Attitudes About Weight Originally published on
Fri November 9, 2012 12:37 pm With most Americans fat or fatter,
you'd think we'd be lightening up on the anti-fat attitudes.
Alas, no. Even doctors often think their overweight patients are
weak-willed. But changing negative attitudes about body size
might be as simple as changing what you see. When women in
England were shown photos of plus-sized women in neutral gray
leotards, they became more tolerant. When the women were shown
photos of anorexic women, attitudes became more positive there,
too. "Showing them thin bodies makes them like thin bodies,
more, and showing them fat bodies makes them like fat bodies
more," says Lynda Boothroyd, a psychology researcher at Durham
University in England, who led the study. She calls it a "visual
diet," changing what your eyes eat. Why the unflattering
leotards? Boothroyd and her colleagues wanted neutral clothing
to sever the link between thinn