Young children appear to reject story characters who are obese

Research by the University of Leeds has shown that very young children appear to reject story book characters who are overweight, but not those who are disabled. Led by Professor Andrew Hill from the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, the research investigated young children’s ratings of, and choices between, story characters drawn as overweight, normal weight, or disabled. It found that children voiced negative views about the fictional book character ‘fat Alfie’. More than 100 UK reception and primary school pupils were read a storybook which covered the same plot, showing three children and what happened when their cat got stuck in a tree. Using colour illustrations and a simple text narrative, the books only differed in the way that the main character was drawn. After the story, children rated Alfie and also Thomas, one of the other children in the book who was always normal weight, on several attributes and behaviours. Clear differences were apparent when children chose between Alfie and Thomas.