When Better Seems Bigger: Perceived Performance of Adult Professional Football Players Is Positively Associated With Perceptions of Their Body Size.

ABSTRACT: Research has shown a positive association between cues of physical formidability and perceptions of status, supporting a generic "bigger-is-better" heuristic. However, does better also lead to appraisals as bigger? Recent research suggests that the perceptual association between body size and social status can also be explained in terms of prestige. To test whether perceptions of prestige lead to higher appraisals of body size, we examined whether people apply a "better is bigger bias" (BBB) in football, where performance and body size tend to be uncorrelated. In two studies, we examined real coalitional sports groups on a national (Study 1) and team level (Study 2), and we manipulated target performance in an experimental third study. Results suggest that perceived performance significant

SUBMITTER: Knapen JEP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10481066 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature