Weight-Based Discrimination in the Workplace: An Examination of Rater Characteristics

Abstract

The prominence of obesity has increased in the United States to account for over one-third of the adult population. The purpose of this study was to explore perceived person-organization fit and rater characteristics (average weight vs. overweight; male vs. female) as possible reasons for differential treatment of overweight individuals throughout the hiring process. A total of 320 participants from Amazon’s MechanicalTurk were asked to review a fictitious business profile with a photograph (average weight vs. overweight; male vs. female) and indicate the likelihood they would recommend the individual for hire. Overweight job applicants were expected to be rated as significantly less hirable than their average weight counterparts, and male raters were expected to rate overweight job applicants as significantly less hirable and to utilize discriminant language to justify their rating. Overweight raters were expected to be significantly less likely to recommend overweight job applicants, and overweight male raters were expected to be significantly less likely to recommend overweight job applicants in comparison overweight female raters. The results of a 4-way factorial ANOVA supported one of the hypotheses, which was that differential treatment occurred between rater gender, rater weight, and applicant weight. Implications are offered.