Relationships

Date Someone Who Weighs The Same As You, Offensive Science Says

by Candice Jalili
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

It's another sad day for relationship research.

A new study has found that mixed-race couples aren't the only ones looked down upon by society. Turns out, people also have some pretty big problems when it comes to mixed-weight couples, AKA, a twosome in which one person is heavy-set and the other person is not.

In a series of four experiments, Brian Collison, a psychologist at Azusa Pacific University in California, and his colleagues asked people to rate various images of couples in an attempt to find out whether or not people actually had any sort of prejudice against mixed-weight pairs.

What they found in the first experience? Yep, you guessed it: Mixed-weight couples had by far the lowest approval rating when compared to overweight couples and couples in which both members had low BMI indexes.

In the second experiment, the researchers asked participants to find "ideal" partners for dating app users.

Again, their suspicion that people prefer same-weight couples was confirmed as the respondents consistently paired couples who were in similar physical shape.

In their third experiment, they tried to find out whether mixed-weight couples received different advice from their friends. Again, you guessed it: They do.

While couples of the same weight were encouraged to introduce their significant others to friends and family and go on public dates, mixed-weight couples were encouraged to date in secret and treat the relationship more casually.

Finally, the researchers wanted to find out why we have such a problem when it comes to mixed-weight couples.

What they discovered wasn't super shocking: People just seem to have a problem with couples who are different, in any way, shape or form. So, it doesn't matter if it's a difference in race, class or weight. We just really don't like any pairings in which the people are visual opposites.

So, here's a thought: How about we all make a real effort to just build a bridge and get over it? I don't care what you or your significant other look like.

At the end of the day we're all humans, people. So how different can we really be?

Citations: "Date Someone Your Own Size" (Psychology Today)