Are Fat People More Extroverted?

i do agree with you...
even i am overweight but i am too anxious about things happening around..it this research was correct then i should be slim n trim..[:)]

I am introverted, really have a hard time being around people, find myself eating because of stress, emotional pain and hurt feelings some because I am ignored by my coworkers and really have no close friends in any of my social situations. I have lots of acquaintances, am happily married, but I hate going out in public and going to community events because I am fat and overweight. I am very good at my job, am very talented - but I feel like am stigmatized as a loser, because I am fat. I hate being like this, but I have tried so many ways to lose weight. The only way's I have ever been successful have been when I starved myself (less than 80 calories a day) and walked like crazy. And I can't keep that up for long. I'll lose 30 pounds and then plop it right back on. Over and over and over again.

Just what does the "1.53 times more likely" mean? So I am 1 1/2 times more likely to be extroverted? (I am a little dense with numbers and it doesn't make sense to me) I don't see myself fitting into that study at all. Can you calculate that differently like 9 out of 10 people?? OR make it a percent? I guess I don't understand the numbers.

I get so frustrated when healthy people say all you have to do is ...
Well, guess what - it has not been true for me. And all that kind of talk does is make me feel more unworthy and useless. So I have a hard time with this study. But again, I guess I don't understand the numbers.

It is possible that this occurs due to compensation. Without physical attractiveness to break the ice, important when making a first impression whether seen in a sexual way or not, maybe the overweight must take more initiative.

It is also possible that thinner people are thin due to self consciousness and social anxiety though this is only applicable to a small section of people in experience.

when i was heavier, you couldn't pay me to go to a dance or even go to a family-only event; i always felt like i wanted to disappear- i was shy and kept to myself. since i've dropped the weight, i want to do everything- so logically i can see support for the study, however, its clearly not true for all heavy people to be extroverts or for all extroverts to be prone to obesity

The study says "extroverted" men are heavier. Just too many pints at the pub having fun with their pals!

Dawn-you're not dense with numbers! I find these type of statistics quite misleading, and I have a PhD and tons of experience with stats!

Crabby-I agree with you that it is difficult to draw a connection between these personality factors and obesity intervention. It sounds like these researchers drew some odd conclusions. I'm trying to figure out what to make of this and haven't come up with anything useful yet!

Dawn you can't starve yourself to lose weight...

Try eating 1800 calories a day with 6 small meals a day and exercising 6 days a week.

Who told you to eat 80 calories a day? That is retarded.

gee i am fat extroverted anxious person. when does being extroverted have anything to do with be anxious?

it makes intuitive sense, but i don't think it makes scientific sense. just because there's correlation doesn't mean there's causation.

i'm a slightly neurotic control freak who gets anxious when too many things in my life are beyond my control. i try to regain that control (or an illusion of it) by exerting it on my body using careful diet and exercise. because if there's only one thing in my life i can control, it should be my body, right? i am also introverted by nature (only extroverted when i'm with close friends or when the situation calls for it). my BMI is 18.7, putting me a hair above being underweight.

but i know plenty of extroverted, gregarious people who are just as thin, if not thinner, than i am. likewise, i know many shy and socially awkward overweight people. so while this study might appeal to our intuitions, i don't think it's scientifically sound.

The only time I'm not shy is when it comes to fitness. Otherwise, I'm an introvert and happy that way (don't normally like being social unless it's in a fitness environment)

I'm normal weight leaning overweight. (While, actually by BMI I'm quite overweight, but most wouldn't say so without knowing)

Since we're doing a little poll study in the comments I thought I'd contribute :D

This is good that fatties are introverted! We thin people don't need them all assertive, uppity and in our faces!

Maybe if you were always fat, I don't know. I know when I started gaining weight the less I went out and did stuff. I still did things, just not like I used to. Now that I'm losing weight I go out much more often.

When I was fat, I was really quiet and shy. I didn't like going out because I never felt attractive and I had pretty low self esteem. I've always been sort of neurotic though...I used to be really neurotic about things like schoolwork and band auditions, now I'm neurotic about my work. I'm a perfectionist and I really like things being just so, including my weight I guess. I think I'm more extroverted around people now that I'm thinner though. I actually feel more confident and likable than I did when I was fat. I also wonder how much of the extrovert factor comes from the fact that a lot of heavier people compensate for being fat by being funny or nice or friendly. When I was dating, a lot of my fatter friends told me that they had to "stand out" somehow to the men, so they would try to be the funniest girl at the party or be very willing to have sex with a guy just so they could "get some" and feel loved. I still think this study is more correlation than causation, but it's interesting to analyze the correlation anyway.

Well my family is any indication, fat people as extroverted does make a good bit of sense, but still you see all types of personalities as all types of sizes. On the surface it makes plenty of sense (to me at least), but it just doesn't add up.

I'd be interested to see what the study results would be if they also included a younger demographic of 40 and under. In this study, people were 40-65 and I know as I have gotten older, I don't let my weight affect my socialness like I did when I was in my 20's.

I always get a kick out of looking at pregnant men. Behold the beer belly!

When I was heavier, I was really shy and introverted. I focused on my schoolwork and didn't really want to worry about guys or dating or anything like that. When I lost weight, men started paying attention to me and other girls started talking to me more, so I came out of my shell and really started opening up to people. But I did have a lot of friends in college that were heavier and they told me that they relied on being "the funny girl" at parties so guys would talk to them. That and they also felt like they had to be "easy to hook up with", so they all tended to be really extroverted. Same with my heavier guy friends...most of them said they developed a good sense of humor to deal with being teased for being fat. It makes sense to me, I guess.

Yes. I agree with that too. Fat people are just plain nicer people. The ones that are thin and exercise a lot are often just plain arrogant and nasty.

Wonder if they didn't confuse cause and effect. Maybe it's not that overweight people are extroverted, but rather that extroverted people are more likely to be overweight... because they spend more time in social situations where high calorie foods and beverages are likely to be served?

I think there's a distinction that should be made between introversion / extroversion psychology types and sociability.

Introversion and extroversion are as follows: We each spend half our lives getting to know the world within, and half getting to know the outer world.. introversion and extroversion have to do with the tendency to be more orientated to one or the other.. To really determine if one is one or the other is not as simple as it might seem on the surface, as we all behave as both from time to time.

also there's a western cultural prejudice against introversion, and its a mistake to try and corollate introversion with anxiety or sociability.

I think there are obvious reasons why body types would effect social dynamics.. which is a different subject from psychology types. And this could create statistically normative behavior patterns for different body types.

There is somewhat of a chicken and egg relationship here.. where behavior patterns influence body type, and body type influence behavior patterns.. so.. it is perhaps possible that changing behavior patterns would lead to a change in body type.. but this is complex.. for instance there are any number of things influence behavior patterns.. one's behavior pattern could be thought of as a resolution for any number of other underlying conflicts.. if you force a behavior pattern that doesn't resolve those underlying conflicts as efficiently.. there would be a natural gravity pulling one back to the old patterns.

I think that this whole article is a bunch of nonsense. I have been heavy and thin and honestly my personality has not changed a bit. We are more than just the sum of our parts and regardless of size I really believe that it is important to be who you are. When you start talking to someone people generally don't care about what you look like. What they are thinking about is what is coming out of your mouth. I am sorry but if you are ashamed to leave your house because you are heavy then you really are contributing to your own problem and whallowing in self pity. Confidence about who you are comes from the inside and not from the outside. People notice when you are confident and they will tend to respect that. People regardless of body weight cope and deal with the same issues. So that begs the question when in a crowd who is contributing to you feeling down about your size? Most of the time it is your self. I have known alot of extroverted people and alot of shy people and there was no difference in reference to weight. People who put any stock into any of these studies need to take a look and realize that come next week there is going to be another one that states the opposite of this one. People are people there is no way that you can put them in nice neat little groups all the time and make blanket statements to that effect. As long as you are being yourself then it doesn't matter what anyone (or study) says. Take each person you meet and recognize them for the individuals they are. Some are going to be shy, some are going to be the life of the party so to speak. Most will have two eyes, ten fingers and toes and walk on two legs. Most of them will talk out of their mouths and listen with their ears. These are statements that you can be sure are bound to be correct 90% of the time, and honestly that is all you should be thinking about. Everyone look down right now and check to make sure that you have the appropriate body parts to be called a human being. As long as you don't see tentacles then trust me you are ahead of the game already.

No matter what others look at our big/large people, I feel very proud to be a BBW=big beautiful woman! And also many people at hot big people dating club
( PlusMeet . com) think "big is beautiful!" , "Size is just a number!"
I am very happily making friends with a lot of BHM=big handsome man and BBW admirers there.

I am underweight and extroverted, but I am easily very stressed. I know someone who is overweight and is very introverted.

I agree with Robyn that people are who they are, for the most part... However, I have noticed that a fairly good percentage of women who are "sexually aggressive" (for want of a better term) seem to be larger women. In general, they seem to be more apt to pro-actively approach a man, make direct sexual comments, etc. I've always wondered why this seems to be the case... And this study does seem to support what I've observed. I've read that putting on weight screws with your hormones, so maybe the phenomenon is related? Also, is it possible that the correlation is actually reverse - that instead of overweight people being extroverted BECAUSE they're overweight, maybe extroverts are just more likely to GAIN weight than introverts?

Extroverted x 100. This is so true, a lot of these same people are the ones who's ugly personality matches the outside. I just don't get it, if you are over weight , I would think you would try working on your personality and taking better care of yourself. They should spend more time together making healthy choices. Instead of making annoying comments about pretty women.