Taking the weight off obesity: A regional person-environment fit perspective on the consequences of obesity

Obesity has adverse consequences for individuals—but is this true everywhere? We adopt a person-environment fit perspective to test whether obese individuals suffer less severe consequences in certain sociocultural contexts. Specifically, we assume that obese individuals experience relatively better fit to their environment in contexts with high obesity prevalence. In those high-obese contexts, a better person-environment fit should help individuals attenuate the consequences of their own obesity. We tested this hypothesis across three large-scale datasets (total N > 3,000,000) including hundreds of regional contexts (in the US & UK) and various outcome domains. Obesity prevalence varied greatly across regional contexts (5%–45%). Replicating prior findings, obese individuals generally suffered severe consequences (i.e., were more prone to singlehood, unemployment, and bad health). Critically, however, disadvantages of being obese were reduced (sometimes even eliminated) in high-obese contexts. Accordingly, in support of our person-environment fit perspective, the adverse consequences of obesity appear context-specific.