HEIGHT, WEIGHT, AND BODY-FAT - ASSESSMENTS OF COVARIATION BASED ON VISUAL, INFORMATION OR REPORTED CORRELATIONS

College students' intuitive judgments about covariations between heigh t, weight, and body fat were assessed in three experiments using respo nses to a series of propositional statements as the dependent variable . In Exp. 1, judgments were rendered without explicit exposure to a pr ior database. In Exps. 2 and 3, however, databases were studied prior to these judgments. Remarkable consistencies in judgments of weight an d body far, height and weight as well as of height and body far were o btained across experiments. At best, there was little evidence that th e databases influenced the judged covariations among these variables. Whereas judgments about weight and body fat were unambiguous and consi stent with the actual positive correlation between weight and body fat , judgments about height and weight as well as height and body fat wer e less clearcut. What was clear, however, was that these judgements we re highly similar. Implications of these findings from previous resear ch :hat suggest the presence of a perceived negative correlation betwe en height and body fat are discussed.