Date of Graduation

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Biological Sciences

Advisor/Mentor

Dr. Mitch Brown

Committee Member

Dr. Faith Lessner

Second Committee Member

Brihget Sicairos Meza

Third Committee Member

Dr. Kim Stauss

Abstract

Perceivers are capable of estimating the health of individuals through cues to facial adiposity, with such inferences having accuracy in recognizing worse chronic health among those exhibiting greater adiposity. Nonetheless, these inferences could extend beyond health assessments into subsequent anti-fat prejudice based on perceptions of such individuals as pathogenically threatening. Although potentially functional in ancestral contexts, modern healthcare settings could render this functional stigmatization a liability that results in worse medical care toward those with higher adiposity. In this study, I tasked medical workers to evaluate male and female hypothetical patients at high and low levels of facial adiposity, particularly the extent to which the medical providers took their symptoms seriously. Participants additionally completed the Three Domains of Disgust Scale to track individual differences in disgust sensitivity. Pathogen disgust was associated with worse treatment of hypothetical patients across both sexes, regardless of adiposity. Unexpected effects also emerged for sexual disgust, which was associated with worse evaluations of low-fat female targets. Findings suggest that pathogen disgust may serve to reduce contact with conspecifics regardless of heuristic cues to disease, which could interfere with the provision of adequate medical treatment. We frame our findings from an evolutionary mismatch perspective.

Keywords

Anti-fat prejudice; Disgust; Face perception; Stigma

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