What does weight stigma smell like? Cross-modal influence of visual weight cues on olfaction

ABSTRACT In a variety of personal and professional domains, heavy individuals face stigma associated with their body size. Here we investigate a new method for subtle detection of the

negative perceptions consistent with that stigma. In two studies, participants were asked to view images of heavy and thin individuals while smelling substances that, unbeknownst to them,

were odorless. Across both studies, the results showed that the substances were perceived to smell worse when they were paired with images of heavy individuals than when they were paired

with images of thin individuals. These findings suggest that perceptions of stigmatized individuals can be assessed indirectly through olfactory responses. More generally, they suggest that

the effects of weight stigma are broader than previously recognized. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

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about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS THE INTERACTIVE ROLE OF ODOR ASSOCIATIONS IN FRIENDSHIP PREFERENCES

Article Open access 02 April 2025 A STANDARDIZED LEXICON OF BODY ODOR WORDS CRAFTED FROM 17 COUNTRIES Article Open access 22 February 2025 A DATASET OF LAYMEN OLFACTORY PERCEPTION FOR 74

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Psychological Association ethical standards for the treatment of human subjects, and the UCLA Institutional Review Board approved all procedures. We wish to thank Barry Schwartz and Laurie

Rudman for helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript and UCLA’s DiSH Lab undergraduates for assistance in data collection. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS *

Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA A C Incollingo Rodriguez & A J Tomiyama * Department of Psychology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, USA A

Ward Authors * A C Incollingo Rodriguez View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * A J Tomiyama View author publications You can also search for

this author inPubMed Google Scholar * A Ward View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to A Ward. ETHICS

DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no conflict of interest. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Incollingo Rodriguez, A.,

Tomiyama, A. & Ward, A. What does weight stigma smell like? Cross-modal influence of visual weight cues on olfaction. _Int J Obes_ 39, 1030–1032 (2015).

https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2015.14 Download citation * Received: 11 August 2014 * Revised: 03 November 2014 * Accepted: 10 November 2014 * Published: 04 February 2015 * Issue Date: June

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