Fat Phobia Scale

The Fat Phobia Scale was originally created in 1984 to determine and measure fat phobic attitudes. It contained 50 items that were to be ranked on a five point scale, with 1 having the least fat phobic attitudes and 5 having the most fat phobic attitudes. Recently, the scale has been changed to make it shorter. The fat phobia scale - short form now contains 14 items that are to be ranked on a five point scale to measure fat phobic attitudes. The new scale is just as effective in measuring fat phobic attitudes as the old one is despite its shortened length.

14 Items of the New Scale

 * 1) Lazy/Industrious
 * 2) No Will Power/Has Will Power
 * 3) Attractive/Unattractive
 * 4) Good Self-Control/No Self-Control
 * 5) Fast/Slow
 * 6) Having Endurance/Having No Endurance
 * 7) Active/Inactive
 * 8) Weak/Strong
 * 9) Self-Indulgent/self-sacrificing
 * 10) Dislikes Food/Likes Food
 * 11) Shapeless/Shapely
 * 12) Undereats/Overeats
 * 13) Insecure/Secure
 * 14) Low Self-Esteem/High Self-Esteem

Uses of the Scale
Both scales have been widely used in research by students, psychologists and physicians. The scale is used to study, measure and treat fat phobic attitudes, fat prejudice and body image, and stigmatization caused by obesity. One six-year study at a mental health clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota originally targeted overweight women but was expanded to include women of average weight who had negative perceptions of their bodies. Forty-seven women were given a pre-test and post-test using the original 50 item scale. The study showed that at first many women had fat phobic attitudes (mean of 3.33 on the 5 point scale). After treatment and the post-test, most improved their views (mean of 2.5).

Another example of the use of this scale was in a few studies regarding dietetics students vs non-dietetics students and dietetics students treating obese people. In the first example, a study done at Ohio University examined the attitudes of both dietetics students and non-dietetics students using the updated short form version of the fat phobic scale. It found that despite the knowledge that people who work in health care and nutrition are more prone to having fat phobic attitudes [need citation], there was not a significant difference among dietetics students and non-dietetics students. Dietetics students had an overall mean score of 3.66 and non-dietetics students had a mean score of about 3.69. However, the data is a little incomplete because they matched people based on sex, weight, body composition and age. It further goes on to show that prejudiced attitudes over obese people are not formed in the classroom but by society as a whole.

The second study focused on 14 randomly picked Universities from the American Dietetic Association's list of dietetics programs in the country. Randomly generated students were sent an email with a link to the survey between September and December 2007 without disclosing that this was a survey to analyze weight bias. It found that the mean score among these dietetics students was about 3.7, which was very similar to the study previously mentioned. However, it also found that dietetics students have a more negative attitude toward obese people in believing that they are less likely to follow and comply with treatment recommendations as compared to their non-obese counterparts. This prejudice against obese people is found throughout other health care professionals. It also found that dietetics students assume that obese people eat more, have poorer diets, and have unhealthy lifestyles based on the results of the fat phobia scale even when they are given information that these people live a healthy lifestyle.

Through these studies and others, one can see how the fat phobic scale can be used to assess fat attitudes among many different kinds of demographics and people.