1. ` Printing: This poster is 48” wide by 36” high. It’s designed to be printed on a large-format printer. Customizing the Content: The placeholders in this poster are formatted for you. Type in the placeholders to add text, or click an icon to add a table, chart, SmartArt graphic, picture or multimedia file. To add or remove bullet points from text, just click the Bullets button on the Home tab. If you need more placeholders for titles, content or body text, just make a copy of what you need and drag it into place. PowerPoint’s Smart Guides will help you align it with everything else. Want to use your own pictures instead of ours? No problem! Just right-click a picture and choose Change Picture. Maintain the proportion of pictures as you resize by dragging a corner. Contrary to my prediction, results revealed that there were no significant differences between the three groups, F (2, 90) =.21, p =.81. See table 1. I then combined quality ratings of the article written by the obese man and obese woman and conducted an independent samples t-test that compared responses to the article paired with the obese news reporters with responses to the article not paired with a photo. Results indicated there was no significant differences between the perceived performance of the article paired with the obese reporters (M = 4.16, SD =.62) compared to the performance of the reporter not paired with an image (M = 4.16, SD =.82), t (90) =.02, p =.99. After reviewing the manipulation check responses from study 1, I learned that participants had not paid attention to the image of the news reporter and were unable to recall if the news reporter was a man or woman, which could indicate they were unable to determine the news reporter was obese. Therefore, I created Study 2 to address this issue. Assessing the Habits and Opinions of Recycling Through the Use of a News Article Kathrine Plagens Introduction Previous studies have been conducted in order to better understand stereotypes associated with obesity (Puhl, et al,, 2013). Some stereotypes related to weight include obese people are lazy, insecure, and unattractive (Soto, et al., 2014). Although studies find that people generally associate negative stereotypes with people who are obese, often these stereotypes are untrue. Many obese individuals explain that they have tried numerous times to lose weight by dieting, exercising, and taking medications, but their weight loss results do not last; which could indicate a genetic component (Thomas, et al., 2008). Although previous research suggests that lifestyle is just one of several influence on obesity, negative stereotypes continue to impact obese individuals on a day to day basis through interactions they have with others (Rogers et al., 2015). In many cases, these stereotypes can negatively influence the perceptions others have of an obese person’s performance. For example, Landy and Sigall (1974) examined the relationship between impressions of people’s attractiveness and perceived quality of their performance and found that the physical appearance of individuals can “bleed over” and affect perceptions of things associated with that person. Based on the findings of previous research, I predicted people would judge a news article written by an obese news reporter more negatively than the same news article not associated with an obese person. Study 1 Method There was a total of 93 (69% women, 30% men, and 1% other). Their self-reported race included, 51.6% White, 29% Hispanic, 9.7% Asian/Pacific Islander, 5.4% Black, 4.3% Other). The ages of participants ranged from 18 to 51 (M = 20.82, SD = 4.75). Design and Procedure Study 1 utilized a between-Ss design with three separate conditions; in each condition, participants were presented with a news article about recycling, and were told that the study was assessing the habits and opinions of a recycling program to be launched in a city called Pomville. In the two experimental groups participants were randomly assigned to read the article paired with a picture of the news reporter, which was of either an obese man or obese woman. The control group received the news article not paired with a picture. After participants read the news article, they were asked to complete a questionnaire assessing their attitudes about the quality of the news article. Two examples from the questionnaire included: “I think the article was written with clear, understandable points.” and “The news article was well written.” Responses were measured on a Likert scale ranging from 1-6 with higher numbers reflecting a more positive attitude. The 10 questions that directly assessed the quality of the written news article had good reliability (α =.82). Results I hypothesized that participants would judge a news article negatively if the article was written by an obese person. To test my prediction, I conducted a between-Ss analysis of variance (ANOVA) that compared quality ratings of the written article (i.e., the dependent variable) between the three groups (obese man, obese woman, no image) that served as the independent variable. Staff Writer, R. Dimitri Study 1 (Cont.) Perceived Quality of the Written News Article References Landy, D., & Sigall, H. (1974). Beauty is talent: Task evaluation as a function of the performer’s physical attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 29(3), 299- 304. Puhl, R. M., Luedicke, J., & Heuer, C. A. (2013). The stigmatizing effect of visual media portrayals of obese persons on public attitudes: Does race or gender matter? Journal of Health Communication, 18(7), 805-826. Rogers, R., Eagle, T. F., Sheetz, A., Woodward, A., Leibowitz, R., Song, M., … Eagle, K. A. (2015). The relationship between childhood obesity, low socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity: Lessons from Massachusetts. Childhood Obesity, 11(6), 691-695. Soto, L., Armendariz-Anguino, A. L., Bacardi-Gascon, M., & Cruz, A. J. (2014). Beliefs, attitudes and phobias among Mexican medical and psychology students towards people with obesity. Nutricion Hospitalaria, 30(1), 37-41. Thomas, S. L., Hyde, J., Karunaratne, A., Herbert, D., & Komesaroff, P. A. (2008). Being ‘fat’ in today’s world: A qualitative study of the lived experiences of people with obesity in Australia. Health Expectations, 11, 321-330. Method A separate sample of participants were recruited in the same manner as Study 1. There was a total of 24 participants (75% women, 25 % men). Their self-reported race included, 54.2% White, 33.3% Hispanic, 4.2% Black, 4.2% Asian/Pacific Islander, 4.2% Other. The ages of participants ranged from 18 to 38 (M = 22.38, SD = 6.22). Design and Procedure I added a short biography of the obese news reporters, with a large image on a separate screen, hoping that participants would pay more attention to the weight of the news reporter. All other aspects of the methodology remained the same as in Study 1. There was acceptable internal consistency of the scale that measured the written quality of the news article (α =.75). Results The results from Study 2 indicated that participants who were exposed to the photos were able to successfully recall the gender of the new reporter, suggesting that participants were able to recall if the news reporter was obese. I conducted a between- Ss ANOVA that compared the same variables as Study 1. Results indicated that there were still no significant differences between the three groups, F (2, 21) = 1.35, p =.28. See table 2. I then conducted an independent samples t-test using the same variables as Study 1. Results indicated that that there was not a significant difference between the obese reporters’ performance (obese news reporters: M = 4.02, SD =.52) and the performance of the reporter whose weight was not specified (M = 4.16, SD =.72), t (22) = -.99, p =.33. As previously outlined, past research supports the idea that people tend to have negative attitudes toward obese people. In the present study, I hypothesized that participants would judge a news article negatively if it was written by an obese news reporter; however, the results did not support my prediction. One reason could be that participants in this study were striving to respond in a socially desirable manner, and not necessarily how they actually felt. Even though Study 2 strengthened the manipulation of the obese news reporters, participants still may not have paid attention to the weight of the news reporter. Also, the present study utilized a well-written article and a positive biography of a successful news reporter, which might have inadvertently led all participants to feel positively about the news reporter regardless of his or her weight. Future research could explore these areas, and include both positive and negative qualities of the news article as well as positive and negative biographies of the news reporters when investigating perceptions of obesity.. Study 2 Discussion Dr. Tay Hack, Faculty Advisor MeanSDN Obese Man 4.21.6530 Obese Woman 4.10.5829 No Image 4.16.8234 MeanSDN Obese Man 4.21.467 Obese Woman 3.81.548 No Image 4.28.729 Table 1: Study 1 Table 2: Study 2