Perceptions of a Personal Trainer: Influences of Appearance and Personality

Purpose:

Research has indicated that health professionals are often judged by their appearance (e.g., Hash et al., 2003; Sartore & Cunningham, 2007). For example, because being overweight is often assumed to reflect poor health habits, such as physical inactivity and overeating (Puhl & Brownell, 2003), heavy health professionals may be viewed as less knowledgeable and competent than their thin peers. Within the fitness domain, specifically the realm or personal trainers, this trend is likely to occur as well (Sartore & Cunningham). The purpose of this study was to determine college students' perceptions of a personal trainer's professional ability and effectiveness as well as assumed personal qualities based on varying descriptions of that trainer's appearance and personality. Participants were 281 undergraduate students (123 males, 158 females) with an average age of 21.1 years (SD = 2.78) and an average BMI of 24.5 (SD = 4.71). Most participants reported being physically active at least 3 days per week; 61% were satisfied with their weight, and 56% wanted to lose weight.

Methods:

Participants read one of five scenarios describing a personal trainer (normal weight/high motivating (n = 55), normal weight/low motivating (n = 57), overweight/high motivating (n = 56), overweight/low motivating (n = 55), and control (n = 56)) and then completed (a) a demographic questionnaire, (b) a questionnaire about perceptions of the personal trainer including 5 items pertaining to competence and 6 items pertaining to personal qualities, and (c) a personal attributes scale (Ginis & Leary, 2006) including 12 personal characteristics and 8 physical characteristics of the personal trainer.

Analysis/Results:

Separate MANOVA's revealed scenario group differences on personal and physical dimensions of the personal attributes scale, personal – Wilks' Lambda = .65, F (36, 1002) = 2.49, p < .001, eta² = .10, power > .99; physical – Wilks' Lambda = .49, F (44, 1112) = 6.52, p < .001, eta² = .16, power > .99. When comparing the two extremes, overweight/motivating and normal weight/lazy, significant results indicated that the overweight personal trainer was viewed as less mean, afraid, and sad, as well as more confident. Significant results were also present when comparing all five scenarios.

Conclusions:

These results provide health professionals better insight into how weight bias may influence clients' perceptions of their competence. Moreover, it is hoped that by better understanding how physical appearance influences assumptions regarding fitness and competence, educational interventions and improved professional development programming can be developed.