WOULD you trust an overweight blogger to give you food advice? Thousands wouldn't, new research has revealed.
Even when two people gave exactly the same advice in their posts, the study revealed people trusted thin bloggers more.
Researchers at Cornell University said the findings were important because the internet has fast become a leading source of health information - but trust is an interesting subject to debate.
Dr Jonathon Schuldt, lead author of the study, said: "When we search for health information online, there are a lot of related cues that can bias our perceptions in ways that we may not be consciously aware of.
"Weight bias and prejudice – which are so rampant in our society – can spill over and affect not only the inferences we make about people, but also objects that are associated with them."
A third of all internet traffic now comes from people surfing the web on their smartphones - with an average of nearly two hours daily spent on their mobile internet per person.
More than half of those smartphone users claim they use their device to look up health-related information, from health websites and food blogs.
Dr Schuldt added: "What we found is that even when we provided nutrient information that is much more relevant to the food's health quality, people are still strongly influenced by the body weight of the recommender."
The study is published online and in a forthcoming print issue of the journal Health Communication.
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