Frequent exposure to heavier body weights might be why overweight men often underestimate their weight status, according to research published in the Journal of Health Psychology.

The research consisted of three studies of more than 1,000 participants from the United Kingdom and the United States. The first study found that people were generally poor judges of men’s weight, and tended to underestimate men’s weight status. The second study found that men with heavier male friends were more likely to underestimate other men’s weight status. The third study found exposing people to men with a healthy weight reduced the chances of them underestimating the weight status of an overweight man.

Together, the findings suggest that people perceive obese and overweight men as being within the healthy body weight range because they are frequently exposed to heavier body weights, shifting their perception of what is “normal.”

PsyPost interviewed Melissa Oldham of the University of Liverpool. Read her explanation of her study below:

PsyPost: Why were you interested in this topic?

Oldham: There is a lot of research which suggests overweight and obese individuals underestimate their own weight status and think of themselves as a healthier weight than they are. Similarly, there is research which shows parents often underestimate the weight status of their overweight and obese children. However, this underestimation might stem from self-serving bias or denial. What we wanted to do was examine the lay public’s ability to objectively judge weight status and to examine whether there was still a tendency to underestimate weight status.

What should the average person take away from your study?

The take home message is that the weight status of overweight and obese males is often visually underestimated. This seems at least in part due to increased exposure to overweight and obesity which comes as a result of the increase in the prevalence of obesity. It is possible that increased exposure to heavier bodyweights means that people think of larger weights as being “normal”.

Are there any major caveats? What questions still need to be addressed?

This particular set of studies only looks at visual recognition of male weight status. However, we have recently conducted another series of experiments examining perception of female weight status. Interestingly, participants in this set of studies were better at judging the weight status of overweight and obese females than they were at recognising overweight and obesity in males.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

The implications from these studies are interesting. The common sense reaction to these studies would be that we need to promote a more accurate representation of what different weight statuses look like in order to allow better recognition of overweight and obesity.

However, there is also a body of research which suggests that identifying as being overweight can actually lead to greater weight gain over the lifespan so it is possible that underestimation of overweight and obesity might actually be a good thing!

The study, “Visual weight status misperceptions of men: Why overweight can look like a healthy weight“, was also co-authored by Eric Robinson.