Protestant Ethic Harms Obese Women, U-M Study Says

by C.J. Carnacchio

In a soon to be published article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, two University of Michigan researchers conclude that belief in the Protestant work ethic leads to lower self-esteem in women who perceive themselves as overweight.

The article, containing two studies, was researched and written by Diane Quinn, a U-M doctoral candidate in psychology, and Jennifer Crocker, a professor of psychology and faculty associate at the U-M Institute for Social Research.

“We found that having a conservative ideology [i.e. Protestant work ethic], or just being exposed to that viewpoint, has a negative effect on the self-esteem and mood of women who believe they’re overweight,” said Quinn. “We don’t know how long-lasting those effects are. They could be momentary, they could last all day, or they could be cumulative.”

In the first study, Quinn and Crocker hypothesize that people who endorse the Protestant ethic ideology also use it as a standard for judging themselves. The Protestant ethic, as interpreted by the study, dictates that those who are overweight lack the self-discipline to manage their weight, and therefore deserve any negative outcomes they experience and are to be considered moral failures. Hence, if these people fail at something — weight management, for instance — they attribute it to moral failings such as self-indulgence or a lack of self-discipline or hard work. This, in turn, leads to lowered self-esteem.

For the study’s purposes it was the women’s self-perceived weight (i.e. whether they felt they were normal weight, somewhat overweight, or very overweight) rather than their actual weight that was used to test the researcher’s hypotheses. According to Quinn and Crocker, self-perceived weight was the critical factor “because standards of thinness differ across individuals and subcultures. Some women may feel overweight even when they are medically normal weight, whereas others may feel normal despite being objectively overweight.”

The first study consisted of 257 female college students. According to Quinn and Crocker, women who both perceive themselves as overweight and endorse the Protestant work ethic suffer from psychological distress and low self-esteem more than overweight women who do not endorse that ethic. For women who did not consider themselves overweight, belief in the Protestant work ethic had no psychological effect.

In the second study, 122 female college students were asked to rate their self-perceived weight status. They were then exposed to messages of one of two ideologies: either an individualistic, Protestant ethic ideology, or a more accepting, “inclusive” ideology.

These ideological messages were manipulated in order to achieve two goals. The first goal, according to the study, was “to show that making the Protestant ethic salient can affect the well-being of overweight women, to establish that the causal direction can go from ideology to well-being.”

The second goal was to shift the study’s focus from the internal to the external. Whereas the first study examines the effects of internal beliefs on the self, the second study examines the contextual effects of ideology on the self. “When they are salient, these ideologies may provide standards for judging the self that affect those who would not ordinarily endorse them. For those who feel stigmatized by their weight, these messages may temporarily cause them to feel worse about themselves.”

Quinn and Crocker conclude that any exposure to debates or speeches that prominently feature the Protestant ethic can make overweight women feel bad about themselves. According to the study, “[W]hen a person hears a fiery political speech about each American being responsible for his or her outcomes, or a debate on the merits of ‘workfare’ over welfare, then that person may temporarily judge the self according to the tenets of the Protestant ethic. For those whose weight is salient this may lead to feelings of low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression.”

According to Quinn and Crocker, previous studies have focused on how belief in the Protestant ethic leads people to judge others. These studies concluded that those who subscribe to the ethic tend to judge others such as blacks, welfare recipients, and the overweight more harshly.

The U-M study is ground-breaking research in that it is the first to investigate the effect the Protestant work ethic has on the self. Quinn hypothesizes that its effect on the overweight may be stronger than on other stigmatized groups. “The overweight tend to lack cohesion, and a sense of group pride,” said Quinn. “Unlike the members of most other stigmatized groups, they believe that they have the power to opt out of membership. But a growing amount of evidence suggests that isn’t true.”

Quinn and Crocker believe that their study’s findings suggest that women should reevaluate their personal beliefs about the extent to which being overweight is actually their own fault. “Women need to become more aware of the biological and psychological processes that influence weight, and of how little weight has to do with moral character,” according to the study.

Since the study’s findings indicate that a belief in the Protestant ethic increases overweight women’s vulnerability to psychological distress, Quinn and Crocker suggest that it might also increase their vulnerability to eating disorders. “High levels of endorsement of the Protestant ethic in the overweight may foster unhealthy, disordered attempts to lose weight or maintain low weight, and unreasonable blame and dislike of the self when attempts at weight loss fail,” according to the study.

Some may argue that by linking the Protestant work ethic to such negative outcomes as low self-esteem and eating disorders, the study is in effect suggesting that self-perceived overweight women should avoid contact with conservative views in order to protect their mental and physical health. There is a fear that the study's conclusions might promote a certain selfish view of politics, whereby voters choose their political ideologies not according to which one they believe is best for the nation, but which one benefits their own mental health.

One might also infer that the study’s anti-conservative conclusions dictate that these women should accept left-wing ideologies, which are perceived as being more accepting and inclusive and therefore psychologically healthier.

In an email interview Quinn and Crocker responded to such criticisms, saying, “We would not presume to suggest what ideologies people should accept or reject, or for what reasons.” MR

This article was published in the 31 March 1999 edition of The Michigan Review (Volume 17, Number 9).
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