Anti-Americanism, Americanophobia or anti-American sentiment, is dislike, fear, or hostility toward the United States or the American people and their culture, business practices and technology, or the policies of their government, especially the foreign policy practices of the United States. Common contemporary negative stereotypes of Americans include the assertions that Americans are: aggressive, arrogant, ignorant, overweight, poorly dressed, obsessed with making money, too moralistic and also too materialistic, and generally obnoxious. Other criticisms originate from a perception that the US military acts as "the world's policeman". Political scientist Brendon O'Connor of the United States Studies Centre suggests that anti-Americanism cannot be isolated as a consistent phenomenon and that the term originated as a rough composite of stereotypes, prejudices and criticisms toward Americans or the United States, evolving to more politically based criticism. French scholar Marie-France Toinet says use of the term "is only fully justified if it implies systematic opposition – a sort of allergic reaction – to America as a whole".