Thinking Fat: Self‐Schemas for Body Weight and the Processing of Weight Relevant Information1

Abstract

Self‐schemas pertaining to body weight were investigated for their effects on processing weight‐relevant information. Females who had body weight schemas (Schematics) were compared for their cognitive performance on a variety of tasks with females who did not have such schemas (Aschematics). The function and content of the body weight schema was explored by using stimuli that varied in their conceptual relevance to the schema, including verbal descriptors, body silhouettes, and pictures of food. Both Schematics and Aschematics exhibited a sharp differentiation in their processing of “fat” and “thin” trait adjectives, confirming the hypothesis that all individuals will generate at least a simple structure of thoughts and feelings about their bodies. However, only those individuals with highly developed body weight self‐schemas (Schematics) showed a clear and consistent discrimination in their responses across stimulus domains. It is hypothesized that a body weight self‐schema has both universalistic and particularistic aspects. All individuals have some conception of their body image (universalistic aspect), but there is considerable variation in the way they will process stimuli with reference to body weight. Only those with a particularistic schema will show consistent discriminations in their responses in the body weight domain and will use relevance to one's body weight as a selective mechanism in processing a variety of stimuli.