European here, and I associate fat people with poor and rich people with normal looks (not anorexic-thin). Morbidly obese I associate with Americans.
But that’s because I’ve read several studies that link indeed unhealthy lifestyle (starchy, sugary, fatty foods, pre-made foods and to-go-foods are all cheaper than veggies) with lower education = general the poor population (despite the growth of the chasm because more and more middle-class people fall into poverty income - but they still have the knowledge that the chronically poor lack).
Whereas rich people (really rich, not just middle-class) not only generally have the knowledge, they can afford personal trainer (middle-class: sports club, poor people: free sports) and eating out at healthy (organic veggie) restaurants (middle-class: cook at home; poor people: McD).
The direction of causality is always tricky. Sometimes we get it backwards. Sometimes there’s a confounding variable (a.k.a. lurking variable).
Generally speaking, a person who is lazy has a greater chance of being poor than a person who is motivated and hard working; they have a harder time staying employed, and thus end up poor. By the same token, a person who is lazy tends to sit around a lot, overeat, is unmotivated, and does not really care what people think of them.
In other words, the lurking variable is laziness, which causes poverty and obesity.
It isn’t a question of picturing. Go to a working class shopping mall - fat people everywhere. Go to an upper middle class shopping mall - find a fat person.
I mostly associate emaciated with drug use, so it could be a rich person or someone coming by their drug money through criminal means.
At any rate, I generally associate morbid obesity with lower-to-middle class and being really fit with either the wealthy who have time to spend in the gym or people who work hard for a living.
And yet, I’ve never met a lazy poor person, at least in the sense of what they do on the job. The only thing I’ve seen is tired poor people because they work two eight hour jobs.
I associate “rich” people as being very thin. They care about their appearance and have the time to work on it. I’m not even talking about actors or celebrities. I’m thinking of Wall Street types, lawyers and executives.
The middle classes I tend to think of as heavier. The paunchy middle manager or IT guy or salesman with the cheap suit. Not “obese” per se, but just sort of really out of shape from working 70 hours a week and eating airport food.
I tend to associate very obese with the poor and working classes. No time or inclination to worry about fitness.
USA. Rich thin, poor fat. When you’re rich you can afford to hire people to cook for you and walk you Since they don’t have to work they have more time to sit around primping and worrying about their appearance all day.
Born and raised in the midwest. I always grew up with the prejudice that:
rich = fit/thin
middle = anywhere from fit to overweight
poor = overweight/obese OR unheathily skinny due to substance abuse.
Working in a grocery store in a bad part of town for over a year only helped to cement that belief. There were very few customers that defied my prejudices (I’ll admit, they are my prejudices.)
