91 The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 2 Unlike findings from other studies (Moller & Tischner, 2019; Puhl et al., 2013), our results did not indicate that Counselor Trust or Counselor Selection were negatively related to being overweight. However, when looking at the Advice Following subscale, there was a marked difference in the scores. The hypothetical overweight counselor had higher mean scores than underweight counselors on all three subscales and overall composite scores. On the upside, weight may not be an issue for many clients seeking counseling. Despite continued weight bias and stigma in social media and society, people might recognize that overweight counselors’ skills and knowledge are more important than perceived body weight. On the downside, clients may hesitate to follow counsel associated with issues concerning their own physical well-being from a perceived overweight counselor. To combat this, counselors need to be willing to broach the issue of weight if they feel it is hindering the therapeutic alliance. Similar to other multicultural topics, differences in body weight between the counselor and client may be a potential barrier for the free expression of client concerns. The willingness of the counselor to explore this topic may put the client at ease and make them able to further explore their concerns in a nonjudgmental, therapeutic manner. Underweight Counselors We found surprising results suggesting that participants in our study would prefer an overweight or average-weight counselor to an underweight counselor. Participants scored counselors perceived as underweight significantly lower on a client’s willingness to select, trust, and follow a counselor’s advice than average-weight and overweight counselors. These results supported the decision to add this variable to our study and indicate the need for more research on weight bias toward underweight professionals. The underweight variable yielded results that complement previous research on weight bias, indicating that people can be biased against underweight professionals (Allison & Lee, 2015; Davies et al., 2020b). Because of the persistent social desirability to be thin or underweight, research indicates that people may be pro-underweight on an explicit level; however, they implicitly prefer an averageweight person (Marini, 2017). In our findings, participants somewhat preferred to select an overweight counselor instead of an underweight counselor, upholding the notion that people do not necessarily trust those who are underweight despite the social pressure to be thin. This result highlights a striking mismatch in thought: people may prefer to be underweight because of social pressures but not fully trust an underweight counselor. It could indicate that societal pressures to be underweight are not as strong as once thought or it may suggest that people possess complicated views on being underweight in general. These results reflect those found by Marini (2017), in which individuals implicitly preferred an overweight individual over an underweight individual, implying maladaptive behaviors and dangerous consequences. Additionally, with body positivity and body acceptance movements, underweight persons may be overlooked as recipients of negative weight bias (Beggan & DeAngelis, 2015). These results may give underweight counselors pause about how clients perceive them in session and the notion that experiences of thin privilege may not transfer into their professional identity. In response to these possible perceptions from clients, underweight counselors may benefit from seeking professional supervision or consulting with colleagues about the topic. Antifat Attitudes The AFA results indicated that as a person’s negative attitudes toward overweight people decrease, they disregard weight as a factor for selecting and trusting the skills of counselors. Currently, there is no measure for anti-thin attitudes to analyze whether this bias would yield similar results. Despite the lack of an anti-thin measure, these results reiterate the belief that we judge others based on what attributes are important to us or differentiate us from others (Cermák et al., 1993). When body weight is not an attribute
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