Fat Girls and Skinny Boys: How Social Similarity Influences Weight-Related Perceptions and Behaviors

• In Event: 378 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session II
  In Refereed Roundtable: B. Table 10. Health and Wellness

Abstract

Research on obesity has focused on the influence of direct connections, but has overlooked the impact of the people who surround us without being tied directly to us. This paper argues that social influence flows not only from the people who comprise our interpersonal networks, but also from those unconnected, socially similar others who constitute our routine social environments. These familiar strangers function as additional vectors of influence by supporting and enforcing, or opposing and subverting, gendered norms about body weight, exercise and eating. Additionally, we contend that the influence of these familiar strangers is stronger when weight-related norms are weaker, as in the case of less standardized body ideals for men. Drawing on social network analysis and comparative reference group theories, we employ a novel methodological approach that assesses the influence of familiar strangers within delineated social environments. Using data from Add Health, we find support for the influence of familiar strangers on one’s weight-related misperceptions and behaviors, even after controlling for the influence of friends. Our study expands prevailing conceptions of the scope of an ego’s social environment, demonstrating that familiar strangers exhibit a type of influence that is separate and significantly different from the influence of network members.

Authors

• Rachel Leigh Behler, Cornell University

• Chan S. Suh, Cornell University

• Yongren Shi, Cornell University