Americans spend billions of dollars each year trying to change their weight with diets, gym memberships and plastic surgery.

    Trying to live up to the images of “perfect” models and movie heroes has a dark side: anxiety, depression, as well as unhealthy strategies for weight loss or muscle gain. It also has a financial cost. Having an eating disorder boosts annual health care costs by nearly US$2,000 per person.

    Why is there both external and internal pressure to look “perfect”? One reason is that society rewards people who are thin and healthy-looking. Researchers have shown that body mass index is related to wages and income. Especially for women, there is a clear penalty at work for being overweight or obese. Some studies have also found an impact for men, though a less noticeable one.

    While the research literature is clear that labor market success is partly based on how employers and customers perceive your body image, no one had explored the other side of the question. Does a person’s own perception of body image matter to earnings and other indicators of success in the workplace?

    Our recently published study answered this question by tracking a large national random sample of Americans over a critical time period when bodies change from teenage shape into adult form and when people build their identities.

    As in other research, women in our sample tend to over-perceive weight—they think they’re heavier than they are—while men tend to under-perceive theirs.

    We found no relationship between the average person’s self-perception of weight and labor market outcomes, although self-perceived weight can influence self-esteem (自尊心), mental health and health behaviors. 

    While the continued gender penalty in the labor market is frustrating, our finding that misperceived weight does not harm workers is more heartening.

    Since employers’ perception of weight is what matters in the labor market, changing discrimination laws to include body type as a category would help. Michigan is the only state that prohibits discrimination on the basis of weight and height. We believe expanding such protections would make the labor market more fair and efficient.

解析：B。根据题目中的researchers和people’s earnings可定位至原文第三段。该段第三句提到，研究人员指出，体重指数与工资和收入存在关联。B项与此内容相符，题目中的people’s earnings对应该句中的wages and income（工资和收入），B项中的people’s body weight and shape对应该句中的body mass index（体重指数），故正确答案为B。

错项排除：A项中的social status在原文中未提及，故排除。原文第六段提到，男性和女性对自身体重的认知存在差异，男性会低估自己的体重，而女性则会高估自己的体重，并没有提到男性和女性谁会把收入看得更加重要，故C项排除。原文第七段提到，普通人对自身体重的认知与劳动力市场的产出（labor market outcomes）之间没有关联，但并没有讨论人们的贡献与其收入是否对等，故D项排除。