%0 Report
        %A Blanchflower, David G.
%A Oswald, Andrew J.
%A Landeghem, Bert van
        %T Imitative Obesity and Relative Utility
        %D 2009
        %8 2009 Feb
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 4010
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp4010
        %X If human beings care about their relative weight, a form of imitative obesity can emerge (in which people subconsciously keep up with the weight of the Joneses). Using Eurobarometer data on 29 countries, this paper provides cross-sectional evidence that overweight perceptions and dieting are influenced by a person’s relative BMI, and longitudinal evidence from the German Socioeconomic Panel that well-being is influenced by relative BMI. Highly educated people see themselves as fatter − at any given actual weight − than those with low education. These results should be treated cautiously, and fixed-effects estimates are not always well-determined, but there are grounds to take seriously the possibility of socially contagious obesity.
        %K mental health
%K dieting
%K peer effects
%K happiness
%K imitation
%K comparisons
%K body mass index BMI
%K well-being
%K obesity