The obese applicant, for example, was viewed as having poor work habits and more likely to have emotional and interpersonal problems. Another way of looking at this is work income. The area of social relations is possibly the most fraught for obese people as their size makes them the butt of jokes and many people assume that the obese are gluttonous, lazy and generally unattractive. A series of interviews conducted amongst Italian schoolgirls aged 13-16 showed that obesity was considered to be a social stigma both by overweight and normal weight girls. Obese people were perceived as being less active, less attractive, less healthy, weak willed and having poor self control.
Obese women tend to suffer from greater prejudice than obese men.
Studies have shown that obese women find it more difficult to be upwardly mobile, find marriage partners and relate to others than obese men. Obesity causes a great deal of personal anguish but even when obese people visit their doctor or other healthcare professionals, they are still subjected to prejudice. This contributes further to their isolation and to the feeling that nothing can be done about their problem. A group of severely obese patients who had lost weight as a result of gastric surgery stated that they would prefer to be deaf, dyslexic, diabetic, or to suffer serious heart disease or acne rather than return to their previous state of overweight. Given the above catalogue of discrimination and stigmatisation, it would be expected that obese individuals would suffer from psychological and social problems.