If human beings care about their relative weight, a form of imitative obesity can emerge (in which people subconsciously keep up with the weight of the Joneses). Using Eurobarometer data on 29 countries, this paper provides cross-sectional evidence that overweight perceptions and dieting are influenced by a personâs relative BMI, and longitudinal evidence from the German Socioeconomic Panel that well-being is influenced by relative BMI. Highly educated people see themselves as fatter â at any given actual weight â than those with low education. These results should be treated cautiously, and fixed-effects estimates are not always well-determined, but there are grounds to take seriously the possibility of socially contagious obesity.
Source: “Imitative Obesity and Relative Utility” from IZA Discussion Paper No. 4010, February 2009
TheRedArchive is an archive of Red Pill content, including various subreddits and blogs. This post has been archived from the blog bakadesuyo.
Title | If obesity becomes the norm, will people get fatter “to keep up with the Joneses?” |
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Author | Eric Barker |
Date | May 18, 2010 4:53 PM UTC (13 years ago) |
Blog | bakadesuyo |
Archive Link |
https://theredarchive.com/blog/bakadesuyo/if-obesity-becomes-the-norm-will-people-get-fatter.17147 https://theredarchive.com/blog/17147 |
Original Link | https://www.bakadesuyo.com/2010/05/if-obesity-becomes-the-norm-will-people-get-f/ |
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