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If obesity becomes the norm, will people get fatter “to keep up with the Joneses?”

Eric Barker
May 18, 2010

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

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Post Information
Title If obesity becomes the norm, will people get fatter “to keep up with the Joneses?”
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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