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Deviations from the prototype: Associations between women’s subjective weight and perceived sexual orientation
Silvia, Jr., William
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125519
Description
- Title
- Deviations from the prototype: Associations between women’s subjective weight and perceived sexual orientation
- Author(s)
- Silvia, Jr., William
- Issue Date
- 2024-06-18
- Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
- Rios, Kimberly M
- Department of Study
- Psychology
- Discipline
- Psychology
- Degree Granting Institution
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Degree Name
- M.S.
- Degree Level
- Thesis
- Keyword(s)
- Stereotypes
- Fat Studies
- sexual orientation
- femininity
- masculinity
- Abstract
- Western norms of femininity prescribe that women should be thin; however, lesbian women are stereotyped as distinct from feminine norms and more aligned with norms of masculinity. Shared stereotypes may cause women who are fat to be perceived as more likely to be lesbians. In three studies, I found support for this hypothesized relationship. In Study 1, 199 undergraduates demonstrated an implicit association between images of larger/smaller women and words associated with stereotypes of lesbian/straight women. In Study 2, I analyzed Chicago Face Database (CFD) data (N = 20-131 raters per stimulus) using previously identified correlations to find support for a correlation between subjective weight and perceived gender roles for both female and male stimuli. In Study 3, 111 undergraduates rated 90 female and male CFD faces. Female faces of higher subjective weight were rated as more likely to be lesbian or bisexual than female faces of lower subjective weight. Overall, these findings suggest that white US perceivers judge higher-weight female targets to be more masculine and therefore more likely to be lesbian or bisexual relative to lower-weight female targets. Future research should consider expanding this methodology to studies of men or studies using diverse populations.
- Graduation Semester
- 2024-08
- Type of Resource
- Thesis
- Handle URL
- https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125519
- Copyright and License Information
- Copyright 2024 William Silvia, Jr.
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Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois PRIMARY
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