Poll to follow shortly. Without thinking about it too much, do you immediately picture someone characterized as “very rich” as fat, and someone “very poor” as thin, or vice versa? And what is your original culture?
I tend to associate pleasantly plump men as being well-to-do, and very skinny men with poverty. Skinny/average men and women are also well-to-do.
Fat men and fat and obese women are working-class or poor.
Obese men and very obese women are poor.
But I don’t think I have any strong associations of body type with income level. I imagine foods cheap enough here (in the US) that obesity is common enough even in the lowest income levels.
I voted Canada or US/Poor Fat - Rich Thin - but I wouldn’t say I picture poor people as fat, exactly; more that I associate obesity with the lower economic classes.
In spite of that, when I was dirt-poor, I was shockingly thin.
Europe (Spain): neither.
The morbidly obese are associated with the US (talla americana meaning someone whose waddle is not due to pregnancy or illness), as well as the current growth in obesity being linked in many people’s minds to the spread (no pun intended) of US fast-food chains, US-style breakfast cereal and US-style snacks. But people here don’t think Americans are richer than us, just fatter.
The morbidly thin are associated with heroin.
Huh…I never pictured rich or poor people as necessarily fat or thin. I never even thought of it. So I didn’t vote. Culture: born and raised in Northern California.
Hm, I wish there were a way to modify polls after they were started. Anyway, I’ll keep a manual tally: “Neither” has one response from Europe, one response from Canada/US.
I think it’s just the opposite, rich people are thin and poor people are fat. If you’re rich, you have the resources to buy good food, join a gym, and do other things to stay trim and good looking. On the other hand, a lot of poor people eat fast, cheap food on a regular basis, and I doubt many of them go to the gym.
Obviously that’s an oversimplification, but I think it’s pretty accurate. I’m in Indianapolis, IN if that means anything.
I live in south Texas and I also associate rich for thin, and poor for fat.
The “rich” are just so thin and fit while the “poor” are fat with poor eating, poor nutrition and fast food eating…just my overall observation.
This would be my identical response.
I’ll third that, Larry and nwye 
I was rail-thin when poor, I haz pix! but some of the least-economically-advantaged folks around me are also really obese. shrug
No. There are a range of body types among the rich as among the poor.
USA, lived in Caribbean briefly at a formative age.
I associate California with rich, tan, hard bodies, who can afford personal trainers, and four hours a day in the gym.
I associate bible belt poor with single wide trailers, PBR, and the need to put on SOME clothing to go to Walmart. That clothing may or may not match, and may or may not cover socially acceptable amounts of skin…and there will be quite a lot of acreage to cover.
The first person will be a vegetarian for “humanistic” reasons because their personal chef takes care of making the food palatable. The latter’s plant intake is largely corn and deep fried breading.
Ohio.
Most poor people I have come across are fat and lazy.
“Socioeconomic status plays a significant role in obesity. Low-income minority populations tend to experience obesity at higher rate and are more likely to be overweight.”
http://www.obesityaction.org/educationaltools/factsandstats.php
A little probing around on the web seems to turn up lots of confirmation of this general trend. Picturing things the way most people do in this poll seems to be a little like picturing water running downhill - that is, consistent with the real facts.
Crafter_Man, do you have any speculation whether the referenced people you come across are fat and lazy because they’re poor, or poor because they’re fat and lazy, or both things because of some other cause?
Poor people in my area (Philadelphia, one of the fattest cities in the fat USA) are mostly gigantic; and I’m aware that statistics show that obesity is more common the lower your socioeconomic status. I think of rich Americans generally as much thinner than the average, but that’s probably influenced by the fact that most ‘rich’ people I’ve seen pictures of are in the entertainment industry.
Of course I am also pretty poor, though above the poverty line, and I am very thin, as are plenty of other poor people.
Wow, poll results are pretty unambiguous! U.S. here, and most definitely I associate overweight/poor health with lower socio-economic status. Most poor people I know are fat (but not necessarily lazy.) Most well-to-do people I know are thin (or just a few pounds overweight). I associate this with better diet for those who have more money - the typical welfare diet of poor people is very high in carbs, soda pop and junk food, from what I see.
For several years when I was a kid, my family was extremely poor (as in no electricity or running water, in Europe not the U.S.) We were skinny and healthy - we ate a ton of beans and rice and lentils and whole grains and virtually no junk food, certainly never pop because that was more expensive than water, which was free. We also couldn’t afford gas or a vehicle, so we walked a lot. A phone, or toilet paper (we used newspaper, sorry TMI) cost money and wasn’t really necessary so we didn’t have those either.
“Poverty” is different now.
California. I associate both of them with “fat.” We are all pretty darn fat.
When I think of a slim/fat divide, I think more about urban vs. suburban or rural.
I’ve honestly not noticed any massive trend one way or the other in my own country (England)- maybe a few more obese poor folks, but I’ve known quite a few obese and well off people too, and skinny poor; but I’ve been to enough countries where it’s the other way around, where poverty was so extreme that’s my first image.
Pretty clear polling trend for Canada and the US, I must say. Not surprised, though I was hoping to see if there was any marked contrast with (say) Brazil, India or Africa. For those countries I picture skinny street urchins and jolly fat jet setting merchants and ruling party princelings.