Chubby but cheery? Investigating the compensatory judgments of high, medium, and low status weight groups in Malaysia

We examined two strategies that people use in their social judgements – indifference and compensation. Given their average position we reasoned that an indifference strategy would characterise perceivers’ competence vs. warmth judgements of members of intermediate status groups because they do not p...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Wong, Kang Xin
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34003/
_version_ 1848794753542389760
author Wong, Kang Xin
author_facet Wong, Kang Xin
author_sort Wong, Kang Xin
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description We examined two strategies that people use in their social judgements – indifference and compensation. Given their average position we reasoned that an indifference strategy would characterise perceivers’ competence vs. warmth judgements of members of intermediate status groups because they do not possess features that deviate from normality. In contrast, high and low status groups deviate from normality, and we reasoned that an attention to the negative aspects of their competence vs. warmness should enlist a complimentary desire to compensate such groups in the opposite dimension, in line with societal norms of politeness. Results from Study 1 showed mixed support for these assumptions: Compensation was used for underweight faces (intermediate group) and ideal weight faces (high status), while an indifference strategy was used in the judgements of the overweight (low status) which we reasoned may be tied to cultural and individual differences. When these noise were removed in Studies 2a and 2b, we showed, consistent with our assumptions that the indifference strategy was used in the evaluations of the underweight (intermediate status), while compensation was used for the ideal-(high status) and over-weight (low status) categories. Finally, Study 2b showed that norms of politeness predicted the use of compensation, but only for the overweight low status category.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:21:12Z
format Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
id nottingham-34003
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:21:12Z
publishDate 2016
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-340032025-02-28T11:49:45Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34003/ Chubby but cheery? Investigating the compensatory judgments of high, medium, and low status weight groups in Malaysia Wong, Kang Xin We examined two strategies that people use in their social judgements – indifference and compensation. Given their average position we reasoned that an indifference strategy would characterise perceivers’ competence vs. warmth judgements of members of intermediate status groups because they do not possess features that deviate from normality. In contrast, high and low status groups deviate from normality, and we reasoned that an attention to the negative aspects of their competence vs. warmness should enlist a complimentary desire to compensate such groups in the opposite dimension, in line with societal norms of politeness. Results from Study 1 showed mixed support for these assumptions: Compensation was used for underweight faces (intermediate group) and ideal weight faces (high status), while an indifference strategy was used in the judgements of the overweight (low status) which we reasoned may be tied to cultural and individual differences. When these noise were removed in Studies 2a and 2b, we showed, consistent with our assumptions that the indifference strategy was used in the evaluations of the underweight (intermediate status), while compensation was used for the ideal-(high status) and over-weight (low status) categories. Finally, Study 2b showed that norms of politeness predicted the use of compensation, but only for the overweight low status category. 2016-07-23 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34003/1/10june16%20-%20Master%20of%20Philosophy%20report%5BWong%20Kang%20Xin%5D.pdf Wong, Kang Xin (2016) Chubby but cheery? Investigating the compensatory judgments of high, medium, and low status weight groups in Malaysia. MPhil thesis, University of Nottingham. weight stereotype content model social judgements social status perceptual strategies compensation vs. warmth
spellingShingle weight
stereotype content model
social judgements
social status
perceptual strategies
compensation vs. warmth
Wong, Kang Xin
Chubby but cheery? Investigating the compensatory judgments of high, medium, and low status weight groups in Malaysia
title Chubby but cheery? Investigating the compensatory judgments of high, medium, and low status weight groups in Malaysia
title_full Chubby but cheery? Investigating the compensatory judgments of high, medium, and low status weight groups in Malaysia
title_fullStr Chubby but cheery? Investigating the compensatory judgments of high, medium, and low status weight groups in Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Chubby but cheery? Investigating the compensatory judgments of high, medium, and low status weight groups in Malaysia
title_short Chubby but cheery? Investigating the compensatory judgments of high, medium, and low status weight groups in Malaysia
title_sort chubby but cheery? investigating the compensatory judgments of high, medium, and low status weight groups in malaysia
topic weight
stereotype content model
social judgements
social status
perceptual strategies
compensation vs. warmth
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34003/