Women no longer mind putting on weight, for it has become socially acceptable to be fat, a new study has revealed.
The paper, 'Social Dynamics of Obesity', is the first to provide a mathematical model of the impact of economic, biological and social factors on aggregate body weight distribution. It also is one of the first studies to suggest that weight norms may change and are not set standards based on beauty or medical ideals.
Study authors Florida State University Assistant Professor of Economics Frank Heiland and Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Economist Mary Burke argue that the ballooning weight of the American population has fed even more collective weight gain as the perception of what is considered a normal body size has changed.
"This is a social force that we are trying to document because the rise in obesity has occurred so rapidly over the past 30 years. Medically speaking, most agree that this trend is a dangerous one because of its connection to diabetes, cancer and other diseases. But psychologically, it may provide relief to know that you are not the only one packing on the pounds," said Heiland, who also is affiliated with FSU's Center for Demography and Population Health.
Many economists believe that people eat more -- and thus gain weight -- when food prices drop, but that's just part of the story behind the nation's dramatic weight gain since the late 1970s, according to the researchers. The full price of a calorie has dropped by about 36 percent relative to the price of consumer goods since 1977, but prices levelled off in the mid-1990s. And yet American women continued to get bigger.