14 DAY TRIAL // An overwhelming majority of children would not even consider the possibility of befriending a fat individual, a study carried out by University of Leeds researchers has revealed.
Following their asking a total of 126 boys and girls to pick and choose which characters in a book they would befriend were the latter real-life people, the researchers came to understand that children as young as 4 displayed clear signs of discrimination against overweight persons.
The characters these children were asked to have a look at and think about befriending were a slim, a disabled and an overweight boy.
According to Daily Mail, the overweight boy was the one the children were the quickest in dismissing.
More precisely, it appears that only 1 in 43 of the kids taken into consideration for this research admitted to their being ready and willing to befriend him.
The fat boy portrayed in this book was named Alfie, the name source informs us.
Apart from the character's being dismissed as a potential friend, most of the kids linked its appearance to several negative attributes.
Thus, they argued that Alfie was the least likely to perform well when taking part in a race, get good grades, be invited to parties and be satisfied with its looks.
Summing up the findings of these experiments, Professor Andrew Hill argued as follows:
“It [the research] shows that by school entry age, UK children have taken on board the negativity associated with fatness and report its penalties in terms of appearance, school activities and socially.”
‘This negativity was shared by another visibly different characterization, a child in a wheelchair, but to a far smaller extent,” the professor went on to say.
Interestingly enough, the gender of the children asked to comment on Alfie's life made no difference when it came to their discriminating against this character.
The findings of this research were shared with the public during the latest meeting of the European Congress on Obesity in Liverpool.