No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Beautiful is Good: Evidence that the Physically Attractive Are More Socially Skillful
Abstract
The possibility that the so-called physical attractiveness stereotype may contain a “kernel of truth” was investigated in a study where college students interacted with opposite sex partners whom they could not see. Each student engaged in three telephone conversations and rated their telephone partners for social skill, anxiety, liking, and desirability for future interaction, and were themselves subsequently rated for physical attractiveness by three independent observers. As hypothesized, the more physically attractive students were rated by their telephone partners as more socially skillful and more likable than their less attractive counterparts.
... Research has suggested that good-looking candidates are hired because of the belief that they are more successful (Goldman & Lewis, 1976), more credible (Patzer, 1983) and more able (Mobius & Rosenblat, 2006) than their less attractive competition. Goldman and Lewis (1976) hypothesised that this could be because of attractive individuals displaying relatively higher levels of social skilfulness, thus resulting in a 'kernel of truth' in the above beliefs. ...
... Research has suggested that good-looking candidates are hired because of the belief that they are more successful (Goldman & Lewis, 1976), more credible (Patzer, 1983) and more able (Mobius & Rosenblat, 2006) than their less attractive competition. Goldman and Lewis (1976) hypothesised that this could be because of attractive individuals displaying relatively higher levels of social skilfulness, thus resulting in a 'kernel of truth' in the above beliefs. According to the 'kernel of truth' hypothesis, the stereotype surrounding physical attractiveness might well be a self-fulfilling prophecy because better looking children are expected to outperform their peers and are thus given special treatment at school, which in turn builds confidence as well as social and communication skills (Mobius & Rosenblat, 2006). ...
... This extra attention builds self-confidence as well as social and communication skills, which help the children later in life. This self-confidence has been confirmed in experiments where college students were asked to interact anonymously with each other via telephone and then judge, based on a 5-minute telephonic conversation, whether the person on the other end of the line was physically attractive or not (Goldman & Lewis, 1976). The findings of the study found that there was a correlation between physical attractiveness and social and communication skills and thus, there was a 'kernel of truth' in the physically attractive stereotype. ...
Orientation: It is a widely held belief that attractive people generally experience an easier life and that the door to success is opened by perfect bone structure and a sparkling smile. However, attractiveness might play a far lesser role in individual’s achieving their objectives than has previously been thought. Is it possible that an individual’s qualifications may have a greater influence on the perceptions of managers who assess the suitability of a candidate of a knowledge worker?
Research purpose: The study sets out to examine the relative predictive power of physical attractiveness and qualifications in the decision to hire a knowledge worker.
Motivation for the study: The research was motivated by a desire to explore the presence of bias in the decision-making process when seemingly rational individuals are exposed to factors such as physical attractiveness of a job candidate and then faced with a decision on whether to hire them.
Research design, approach and method: A two-phased experimental design was applied to investigate the existence and strength of the beauty premium amongst a group of managers who were provided with fictitious resumes coupled with photographs of the applicants. These managers were requested to make a hiring decision based on the information supplied.
Main findings: Although results confirm the existence of a beauty premium, it was relatively weak. It indicated that qualifications have a greater influence on a manager’s perception of the suitability of a candidate to fill a position of a knowledge worker.
Practical or managerial implications: The research draws attention to the possibility of bias in selection decisions and proposes ways in which such potential bias can be limited.
Contribution: This study contributes to knowledge concerning the existence or otherwise of a so-called beauty premium, with particular reference to its impact in the knowledge economy.
... mente focalizzata l'attenzione degli osservatori nel giudicare più o meno gradevole un volto (36). Se a tutto ciò si aggiunge come la conformazione della dentatura sia un elemento determinante nel rapporto tra aspetto fisico e riconoscimento sociale si può ben comprendere come un sorriso attraente, piacevole e ben bilanciato sia una dote personale di grande valore, poiché facilita l'accettazione di un individuo nella società migliorandone il giudizio iniziale nelle relazioni interpersonali (2,6,8,10,21,22,48,49,56). L'aspetto infatti viene largamente determinato dalla posizione che assumono le labbra rispetto ai denti nell'atto del sorridere (1,57); ciò costituisce comprensibilmente uno dei criteri base su cui i pazienti valutano la buona riuscita della propria cura (48) ed è logicamente indispensabile la conoscenza da parte del professionista di nozioni sull'anatomia di tale espressione. ...
... In alcune persone però un sorriso pieno comporta l'esposizione di una banda più o meno spessa di gengiva mascellare al di sotto del margine inferiore del labbro superiore, condizione nota come "sorriso gengivale" ( fig. 1) e considerata da taluni Autori come antiestetica (23,25,51), sebbene tale parere non sia condiviso da tutti (13,19,41). Su tali basi si può quindi ben comprendere per- Fig. 1 -Soggetto adulto con "sorriso gengivale" 1 ché il "sorriso gengivale" possa essere considerato come una caratteristica sgradevole (23,25,51) e pertanto potenzialmente compromettere lo sviluppo psicologico dei pazienti (2,3,10,21,35,54). ...
... Inoltre, la significatività dei dati relativi alla lunghezza dell'arcata superiore può far ritenere che questa si associ più spesso a malocclusioni con eccesso mascellare sagittale. È quindi ipotizzabile che sia da adottare una maggiore attenzione nell'ortodonzia intercettiva di queste malocclusioni al fine di prevenire l'instaurarsi di un "sorriso gengivale" che può essere condizionante per l'estetica e lo sviluppo psicologico del paziente (2,3,10,21,23,25,35,51,54). ...
Optimal aesthetics is one of the objectives of an orthodontic treatment; failure to achieve it makes final result unacceptable. As facial aesthetics is largely determined by the relation between lips and teeth during smile, patients usually evaluate the success of treatment on the basis of that relation. In some people full smiling causes the exposition of a large gingival area underlying the upper lip. This condition, known as "gummy smile", is considered unpleasant by some Authors and potentially compromising for individual psychological development. According to orthodontic literature, gummy smile occurs more often in women and young people and it is related with skeletal and periodontal factors and activity of facial muscles. Therefore accurate diagnosis is essential to find what are the elements causing this clinical condition in order to improve dentofacial aesthetic.
... The research results of Solnick & Schweitzer (1999) support it, beauty has a positive effect on personal and social strength, self-esteem, and preferential treatment from other parties. Research repeatedly shows that there are links between beauty and social variables, personal strength, and preferential treatment from others (Bloch & Richins, 1992;Goldman & Lewis, 1977). Discrimination and even harassment of physical appearance also occur in the workplace. ...
... This study involved two dimensions of physical appearance variables, namely: (1) Original physical appearance including taking care of the eyes, nose, face, skin, and body shape; (2) Physical appearance of accessories includes clothes, bags, shoes, accessories, cosmetics. Referring to some previous research, physical appearance affects the preferential treatment of other parties (Bloch & Richins, 1992;Goldman & Lewis, 1977). Even the findings of Benzeval et al. (2013), using longitudinal data on students aged 15 years, and repeating research on the same respondent 20 years later, showed that premium physical attractiveness triggered higher status at levels of education, occupation, salary, and social status than individuals without physical attraction. ...
This study investigated the effect of physical appearance on self-esteem with the intensity of learning via media as a moderating variable. The data were processed by regression analysis to examine the effect of physical appearance on self-esteem without involving moderation. The data were also tested with sub-group analysis to test whether the intensity of learning via media as a moderating variable was able to strengthen the effect of physical appearance on self-esteem. The test results without moderation denote that physical appearance has a positive effect on self-esteem. The results of the sub-group analysis indicate that the effect of physical appearance on self-esteem will be stronger for respondents who have the intensity of learning to exercise their faces and bodies regularly. Physical appearance positively and significantly affects self-esteem in respondents who have routine learning intensity. However, physical appearance does not affect self-esteem in respondents who have low learning intensity and are not routine. There are 144 respondents who joined in this research.
... Currently, nine out of ten people believe that physical features share information about an individual"s behaviors (Zebrowitz, 1996). Moreover, psychologists record that physically attractive people are seen to possess a host of positive attributes, such as happiness, intelligence, trustworthiness, and success (Goldman andLewis, 1977, Wilson andEckel, 2006), a phenomenon that is commonly referred to as the physical attractiveness bias, or more simply,"what is beautiful is good" (Dion et al. 1972). As we will see in more detail in the following sections, income and justice are two sectors for which there is plenty of scientific evidence that beauty is important. ...
... According to Kanazawa (2011), attractive children are more intelligent (by 12.4 IQ points in the United Kingdom and a somewhat smaller number of points in the United States). Physically attractive people are judged to be happier, more intelligent, more trustworthy and better adjusted than others (Dion et al. 1972, Goldman and Lewis 1977, Wilson and Eckel 2006. A person"s physical appearance can have a substantial impact on popularity and treatment from others, in the sense that a more positive treatment of attractive women and men leads them to develop higher social skills and greater confidence, which can expand social networks, produce additional career opportunities, influence whom they choose as romantic partners and improve dating opportunities (Frederick et al., 2012). ...
... A further factor when forming impressions of others is physical appearance. Previous research has identified that more attractive people are generally assumed by observers to have better social skills and are typically rated as more likeable and thought to possess other positive personality traits than less attractive people [18,19]. When a person is smiling they are also seen to be more beautiful and are rated more generously on other personality traits and general virtuousness [20], whilst both male and female Facebook users have been shown to be more willing to initiate friendships with opposite-sex profile owners with more attractive profile pictures [21]. ...
... A key finding of the current study was that individuals who were seen as more attractive were rated more generously on other personality attributes. This finding is consistent with previous research on attractiveness [18,19] suggesting that attractive individuals are seen to possess more desirable personality traits in the context of Facebook profile photographs, and that physical appearance is also an important criterion when forming impressions of a new person through social networking sites. Good agreement was found between observers when evaluating the traits of profile owners in the present study, suggesting strangers can readily form a consensus opinion when encountering new individuals, even at very brief exposure durations. ...
The study investigates impressions formed through social networking sites, specifically the initial judgments we make of others when first momentarily exposed to their photograph. The personality characteristics of 52 Female Facebook profile owners were evaluated by a group of raters who briefly viewed the current profile picture of each person. Analysis revealed consensus between raters when judging personality attributes, although self-other agreement was low: raters’ judgments correlated with profile owners’ judgments of their own personality for only 2 out of the 10 attributes examined. Profile owners perceived as more physically attractive were rated more positively on other personality attributes. Smiling, and being alone or with others in a profile picture was also demonstrated to have a significant impact on personality assessments. It was concluded that whilst profile pictures can strongly influence how we judge others, such initial judgments are not highly likely to be accurate.
... Mueller and Mazur (1997) use data from a cohort of military officers and find that recruits with a high ranked facial appearance are also high ranked in their physical fitness. Concerning social skillfulness and likability, Goldman and Lewis (1977) and Erwin and Calev (1984) find that physically attractive people indeed possess better social skills and are more likable. ...
... In addition to the theories discussed above, the literature reports that physical and vocal attractiveness are highly correlated and thus suggests the existence of a vocal rather than a visual attractiveness stereotype, see, e.g., Zuckerman and Driver (1989). Furthermore, physically attractive people are also assigned stronger verbal and social skills, see, e.g., Goldman and Lewis (1977) and Erwin and Calev (1984). In the presence of other regarding preferences, vocal attractiveness and potentially strong verbal and social skills might enable attractive people to trigger cooperative behavior off their opponents. ...
Being good-looking seems to generate substantial benefits in many social interactions, making the "beauty premium" a not to be underrated economic factor. This paper investigates how physical attractiveness enables people to generate these benefits in the case of cooperation, using field data from a modified one-shot prisoner's dilemma played in a high-stakes television game show. While attractive contestants are not more or less cooperative than less attractive ones, facial attractiveness produces more cooperative behavior by counterparts, but only in mixed-gender interactions. Effects of attractiveness are therefore not exclusively due to "beauty-is-good" stereotyping, but rather operate through a preference-based mechanism.
... People cannot create self-fulfilling prophecies among targets with whom they do not interact. Therefore, by ruling out self-fulfilling prophecy, such designs allow for an assessment of the accuracy of person perception judgments (for examples, see Archer & Akert, 1977;Brodt & Ross, 1998;Goldman & Lewis, 1977). ...
... These people are referred to here as "independent" judges because they were not involved in the interaction between perceiver and target; thus, they are independent of the perceiver. Often in such situations, these independent judges may only be exposed to the targets' responses to further minimize any effects of the perceiver's verbal or nonverbal behavior on the independent judges (e.g., Goldman & Lewis, 1977;Word et al., 1974). Thus, the perceptions of independent judges may be used as criteria against which to evaluate the accuracy of the perceiver's person perception judgments. ...
This chapter reviews the major controversies surrounding accuracy research and resolves those controversies, shows the resolution of these controversies by researchers studying accuracy, and shows the resolution of identical issues in other areas of psychology. It defines social perceptual accuracy as correspondence between perceivers' beliefs about one or more target people and what those target people are actually like, independent of those same perceivers' influence on them. The chapter documents many of the conceptual, methodological, and statistical advances in the psychological study of social perceptual accuracy, with a particular focus on addressing many of the criticisms of accuracy research that have been raised over the last 50 years. Identifying criteria for establishing accuracy is also explored. Furthermore, several major approaches to the assessment of accuracy and processes leading to accurate and inaccurate social judgments are reviewed. It describes componential and non-componential approaches for the study of accuracy. It is concluded that both componential and non-componential approaches have made major and significant contributions to understanding social perception and accuracy.
... Using the objective measure of attractiveness, our results complement and extend earlier findings on the benefits of attractiveness widely documented in the general population to the executive population. Given the vast evidence of the influence of attractiveness among the population (e.g., Aronson and Mills (1965), Widgery and Webster (1965), Goldman and Lewis (1977), Guise, Pollans, and Turkat (1982), and Warner and Sugarman (1986)), it is reasonable to expect executive attractiveness to play a role in executive labor market outcomes. By using an objective measure, we confirm this intuitive but empirically elusive relation. ...
Survey assessments have found limited evidence of benefits of executive attractiveness. We use an objective measure of facial attractiveness that is correlated with survey assessments but less noisy and identify several benefits from executive facial attractiveness previously found in the general population but heretofore empirically elusive among executives. We examine the effect of both measures on executive compensation, promotion to CEO and the corresponding shareholder reaction, and promotion to board chair. The objective measure identifies significantly positive labor market effects for executive attractiveness in all outcomes in contrast to survey assessments of attractiveness that do not correlate with any outcome.
... T. Miller, 2011;Van Leeuwen & Macrae, 2005), especially when motivated (Lemay et al., 2010) or when the association aligns with cultural values (Wheeler & Kim, 1997). Evolutionary accounts also exist, focusing on the functional benefits of the stereotype (Brewer & Archer, 2007;Moore et al., 2011;Rhodes, 2006;Rhodes et al., 2001), arguing that it emerges because attractiveness signals intelligence (Kanazawa, 2011;Kanazawa & Kovar, 2004), social competence (Goldman & Lewis, 1977;Haas & Gregory, 2005), and genetic fitness (Hume & Montgomerie, 2001;Oberzaucher & Grammer, 2010;Weeden & Sabini, 2005). ...
For almost 50 years, psychologists have understood that what is beautiful is perceived as good. This simple and intuitively appealing hypothesis has been confirmed in many ways, prompting a wide range of studies documenting the depth and breadth of its truth. Yet, for what is arguably one of the most important forms of "goodness" that there is-moral goodness-research has told a different story. Although greater attractiveness is associated with a host of positive attributes, it has been only inconsistently associated with greater perceived morality (or lesser immorality), and meta-analyses have suggested the total effect of beauty on moral judgment is near zero. The current research documents one plausible reason for this. Across nine experiments employing a variety of methodological and measurement strategies, we show how attractiveness can be perceived as both morally good and bad. We found that attractiveness causally influences beliefs about vanity, which translates into beliefs that more attractive targets are less moral and more immoral. Then, we document a positive association between attractiveness and sociability-the nonmoral component of warmth-and show how sociability exerts a countervailing positive effect on moral judgments. Likewise, we document findings suggesting that vanity and sociability mutually suppress the effects of attractiveness on each other and on moral judgments. Ultimately, this work provides a comprehensive process account of why beauty seems good but can also be perceived as less moral and more immoral, highlighting complex interrelations among different elements of person perception. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
... Its attractiveness, i.e. the degree to which a person's physical features are considered aesthetically pleasing or beautiful, strongly influences human interaction (1). An appealing face is commonly associated with positive characteristics, such as better social skills (2) or enhanced biological qualities like fertility and overall health (3). Thus, the pursuit for an attractive appearance is a strong desire for many people. ...
Background:
Facial aesthetics is a major motivating factor for undergoing orthodontic treatment.
Objectives:
To ascertain-by means of artificial intelligence (AI)-the influence of dental alignment on facial attractiveness and perceived age, compared to other modifications such as wearing glasses, earrings, or lipstick.
Material and methods:
Forty volunteering females (mean age: 24.5) with near perfectly aligned upper front teeth [Aesthetic Component scale of the Index of Orthodontic Treatment Need (AC-IOTN) = 1 and Peer Assessment Rating Index (PAR Index) = 0 or 1] were photographed with a standardized pose while smiling, in the following settings (number of photographs = 960): without modifications, wearing eyeglasses, earrings, or lipstick. These pictures were taken with natural aligned dentition and with an individually manufactured crooked teeth mock-up (AC-IOTN = 8) to create the illusion of misaligned teeth. Images were assessed for attractiveness and perceived age, using AI, consisting of a face detector and deep convolutional neural networks trained on dedicated datasets for attractiveness and age prediction. Each image received an attractiveness score from 0 to 100 and one value for an age prediction. The scores were descriptively reviewed for each setting, and the facial modifications were tested statistically whether they affected the attractiveness score. The relationship between predicted age and attractiveness scores was examined with linear regression models.
Results:
All modifications showed a significant effect (for all: P < 0.001) on facial attractiveness. In faces with misaligned teeth, wearing eyeglasses (-17.8%) and earrings (-3.2%) had an adverse effect on facial aesthetics. Tooth alignment (+6.9%) and wearing lipstick (+7.9%) increased attractiveness. There was no relevant effect of any assessed modifications or tooth alignment on perceived age (all: <1.5 years). Mean attractiveness score declined with predicted age, except when wearing glasses, in which case attractiveness was rated higher with increasing predicted age.
Conclusions:
Alignment of teeth improves facial attractiveness to a similar extent than wearing lipstick, but has no discernable effect on perceived age. Wearing glasses reduces attractiveness considerably, but this effect vanishes with age.
... In addition, Goldman and Lewis (1977) found that following telephone communications, attractive college students' ...
It turns out that being good‐looking really does pay off: decades of research have shown that attractive individuals are more likely to get ahead in their careers. Although prior research has suggested that bias on the part of evaluators is the source of attractive individuals’ favorable career outcomes, there is also evidence that these individuals may be socialized to behave and perceive themselves differently from others in ways that contribute to their success. Building on socialization research and studies on nonverbal power cues, we examined nonverbal communication in individuals with varying degrees of physical attractiveness. In two experimental studies with data from 300 video interview pitches, we found that attractive individuals had a greater sense of power than their less attractive counterparts and thus exhibited a more effective nonverbal presence, which led to higher managerial ratings of their hirability. However, we also identified a potential means for leveling this gap. Adopting a powerful posture was found to be especially beneficial for individuals rated low in attractiveness, enabling them to achieve the same level of effective nonverbal presence as their highly attractive counterparts naturally displayed. Our research sheds new light on the source of attractive individuals’ success and suggests a possible remedy for individuals who lack an appearance advantage.
... The findings relating to the relationship between physical attractiveness and communication rate are notable due to their online context. Other studies attempting to measure the effects of physical attractiveness on popularity have encountered difficulties separating physical attractiveness from confounding characteristics, including social skills [56,57]. However, the online nature of this work is unique in that very little can be socially expressed from an online profile on eharmony. ...
In this work, we examine the mate preferences and communication patterns of male and female users of the online dating site eharmony over a decade to identify how attitudes and behaviour have changed over this time period. While other studies have investigated disparities in user behaviour between male and female users, this study is unique in its longitudinal approach. We analyze how men and women differ in their preferences for certain traits in potential partners and how those preferences have changed over time. We report on the stronger yet declining emphasis that women put on income and education of their potential partners. We investigate to what extent physical attractiveness determines the rate of messages a user receives, and how this relationship varies between men and women; counterintuitively, the most self-reportedly physically attractive users are not the most popular ones. Third, we explore whether online dating practices between males and females have become more equal over time to find out biases and inequalities have indeed increased. Fourth, we study the behavioural traits in sending and replying to messages based on one’s own experience of receiving messages and being replied to and discover a robust positive relationship between attractiveness and selectivity. Finally, we found that similarity between profiles is not a predictor for success except for the number of children and smoking habits. This work has broader implications for shifting gender norms and social attitudes, reflected in online courtship rituals.
... In an article entitled "Beautiful is good" Goldman (1977) provided evidence that the physically attractive are more socially skilful. In this study, college students interacted through telephone conversations with opposite sex partners whom they could not see, and rated their telephone partners for social skill, liking, and desirability for future interaction, meanwhile themselves were rated for physical attractiveness by independent observers. ...
This thesis concerns the causes and correlations of happiness and mental health in adolescents. It contains six independent but related studies. Chapter one is a review of the literature in the area. In study 1, personality, self-esteem, "aspects of life", affect, depression, and happiness were all measured and the data fully explored through using path analysis. Results revealed that although positive and negative affect were independent as found in the previous studies, general happiness and unhappiness which contain both cognitive judgements and affective responses are two extremes of one continuum and mirror each other to some extent though differ in relating to other variables. Study 2 set out to investigate the lay beliefs on the causes of happiness and its relation to other variables. A questionnaire was specially designed for the purpose of the study. Six clearly interpretable factors emerged from lay theory questionnaire, which were related to the other dimensions. Study 3 examined the relations between attributional style, personality, happiness, and mental health. It used two measures of attributional style. Results revealed that attributional style was a predictor of both happiness and mental health. Study 4 is a two-part study which set out to look at the perceived parental rearing styles and happiness in adolescents. The first part measured parental authority and the second part measured parental bonding. Results indicated that maternal authoritativeness and care were direct predictors of happiness whereas paternal authoritarian style and discouragement of behavioural freedom predicted happiness mediating through self-esteem. Study 5 looked at school setting, self-confidence, loneliness, and happiness. Results showed that friendship and self-confidence in academic performance but not actual grades were the predictors of adolescents' self-reported happiness whereas psychoticism and self-confidence in social interactions were predictors of loneliness. Study 6 is a comparison study between China, Japan, and Britain which measured personality, happiness, and mental health. A general pattern was obtained in terms of causes and correlations of happiness and mental health from all three samples.
... Early research argued that physically attractive people tended to be regarded by others to have superior competence levels, personalities, and interpersonal relationships. For instance, Dion et al. [28] and Goldman and Lewis [29] stated that besides physical attractiveness, social activity competence is also one of the key factors of attraction. Eagly et al. [30] argued that according to general consumer cognitions, people with a high degree of physical attractiveness tend to be viewed as having characteristics such as social achievement, knowledge, concern about others, integrity, etc. ...
This study aims to explore the factors determining consumer loyalty to real estate agents. Based on the past literature regarding the factors of loyalty, the study considers physical attractiveness and intellectual competence combined with a traditional loyalty model in proposing its conceptual framework. It then estimates the relevant parameters using a linear structural equation model (SEM). The subjects of the study consist of consumers in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, aged at least 20 years old who have experience in engaging the services of real estate companies during housing transactions. A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed, with 268 valid ones being returned, for a valid return rate of 89.33%. According to the empirical results, physical attractiveness indirectly influences satisfaction through trust and intellectual competence, with satisfaction in turn affecting customer loyalty. The effect of physical attractiveness on satisfaction through trust is more significant than its effect on satisfaction through intellectual competence. These findings show that the relationship among physical attractiveness, intellectual competence, and trust plays an important role in determining satisfaction and loyalty. Past studies related to loyalty introduced various factors of loyalty; however, they rarely explored the effects of physical attractiveness and intellectual competence on loyalty. That is the difference between this study and past research.
... We also cannot exclude that attractive individuals could actually possess other qualities that make them exceptional candidates, including charisma, communication skills, and the like, as suggested by some existing research. These questions are beyond our competence as political scientists and should be investigated further by social psychologists and other experts interested in issues of facial symmetry and interpersonal relationships (e.g., Goldman and Lewis, 1977;Rhodes, Proffitt, Grady, and Sumich, 1998;Snyder, Tanke, and Berscheid, 1977). ...
Objective
In this article, we address two major gaps in the understanding of the relationship between candidate attractiveness and electoral success. With the assistance of the Victoria Police Criminal Identification Unit in Melbourne, Australia, we show how good‐looking candidates look like by building the faces of six “ideal candidates” in terms of physical attractiveness. Utilizing our “ideal candidates,” we then investigate whether candidate attractiveness can actually sway electoral results.
Methods
We proceed in four distinct steps, using data from the 2008 U.S. House of Representatives elections. First, we collect data on candidate attractiveness. Second, we build our “ideal candidates” and obtain their attractiveness ranking. Third, we model the effect of candidate attractiveness on candidate vote margins. Fourth, we run four hypothetical scenarios that assess whether candidate attractiveness can sway the electoral results in marginal seats.
Results
About two‐thirds of marginal races would trigger a different winner if the actual loser looked like our ideal candidates. In addition, virtually every single marginal race would have had a different outcome if the unsuccessful candidate looked like our “ideal candidate” and the successful candidate was very unattractive.
Conclusion
Candidate attractiveness can sway electoral results, provided that elections are competitive.
... However, we use endorser attractiveness broadly to refer to any characteristic that affects endorsers' physical or social attractiveness . In practice, physically attractive endorsers may be perceived to be more sociable, popular, and likable than less attractive endorsers (e.g ., Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972 ;Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo, 1991 ;Goldman & Lewis, 1977) . product-relevant arguments presented in the message . ...
Previous research on the persuasive effects of ad cues, such as endorser attractiveness, has shown that these cues often serve as shortcuts to product evaluation when recipients are not motivated to process product information. In this article, the role of message cues was hypothesized to depend as much on the types of motives that guide message processing as on the degree of motivation. In an experiment, different goal-relevant attributes were made salient prior to viewing a target ad for a restaurant. The attractiveness of endorsers in the ad and the level of motivation to process the ad (involvement) were also manipulated. When the salient attributes were relevant to sensory gratification (e.g., taste and aroma), endorser attractiveness influenced evaluations of the restaurant under low but not high involvement. When the salient attributes were relevant to public image goals (e.g., creating a good social impression), endorser attractiveness influenced evaluations under high but not low involvement. Analysis of subjects' listed thoughts suggested that, when sensory attributes were salient, the persuasive impact of endorser attractiveness occured via a relatively peripheral route. However, when image attributes were salient, the effect of endorser attractiveness occurred through a more central route, providing information that was processed elaborately when motivation to process was high. © 1994, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.. All rights reserved.
... In fact, attractiveness and quality are directly related through the Bwhat is beautiful is good^stereotype (Dion et al. 1972). Researchers have shown that attractive people are more positively evaluated in terms of social skills (Goldman and Lewis 1977) and are believed to be more competent and successful (Dion et al. 1972) compared to less attractive people. Further, in an advertising context, a spill-over effect exists in which physically attractive testimonials used in advertisements lead to more positive perceptions of product quality than physically less attractive testimonials (Petroshius and Crocker 1989). ...
Prior research has investigated a number of drivers of consumers’ perceived product attractiveness, such as a product’s shape and color. The context, in which a product is presented, has so far been largely neglected in examining consumers’ aesthetic appraisal of products. Drawing on social cognition theory, this research investigates how the attractiveness of the visual context (e.g., websites, advertisements) influences consumers’ perceptions of product attractiveness and product quality for familiar versus unfamiliar products. Results of two experimental studies show that consumers perceive unfamiliar products as more attractive and, consequently, of higher quality when products are placed in an attractive context than when they are placed in an unattractive context. No differences in consumers’ perceived product attractiveness and perceived product quality exist for familiar products. The findings extend our theoretical knowledge of product aesthetics and provide managers with insights into the effective communication of their offerings’ attractiveness.
... Addiction theories and research concerning non-verbal communication were included in the internet topic. When exploring body image issues we discussed eating disorder characteristics, the development of self-esteem in adolescence, and the beautiful is good stereotype (Goldman & Lewis, 1977). The topic of immigration was explored with identity theories, in particular acculturation, ingroup bias, outgroup homogeneity, and realistic conflict theory (Campbell, 1965). ...
Engagement with political, social, and civic issues is a fundamental hallmark of an educated population. However,the level of engagement among adolescents and young adults is considered by many to be below desirable levels.This article presents details of a Psychology in Current Events course designed to increase civic engagement throughan exploration of the psychological theories relevant to topical issues. Issues explored included immigration,healthcare reform, gun control, and gay marriage. Students explored these topics using weekly readings, positionpapers, and an assigned debate. An evaluation of initial student perceptions of the course indicated that studentsresponded positively to the course and in particular reported that the course did help them to engage more fully withthe civic and political issues that were presented.
Judgments of physical attractiveness are based on appearance but are influenced by and influence more than just physical features of the face and body (e.g. clothing and personality traits). This is explored in a selective review of previous research, plus new analyses of data from three previously published studies: the Boston Couples Study, the Multiple Identities Questionnaire, and the Intimate Relationships Across Cultures Study, with implications for mental health. Self-ratings of attractiveness are inflated by self-esteem and confidence in self-halo effects. Partner-ratings are inflated by love and relationship satisfaction in partner-halo effects. Positive responses from others influence attractiveness-enhancing cycles, while negative responses influence attractiveness-deprecating cycles, with impacts on well-being. These influences are represented in a comprehensive Attractiveness Halo Model, which identifies Ten Components of Attractiveness that are inter-related, including physical, emotional, sexual, sensory, intellectual, behavioural, observer, situation, reciprocity, and time. Aspects of the model are supported by analyses of the three studies, generalising comprehensive attractiveness halo effects across time, identities, cultures, and relationship types.
Understanding heuristics in stage financing is imperative, given the consequences of staging for both new venture entrepreneurs and VC investors. This study documents how entrepreneurs’ physical attractiveness affects VCs’ staging intensity during the early stages of the funding process, while taking into account the ethnic constellation of a given VC – entrepreneur dyad. Using a dataset for a representative sample of 231 European IT-ventures, the study finds that physical attractiveness of the lead entrepreneur and the ethnic constellation of a given VC-entrepreneur dyad independently and jointly affect a VC’s staging intensity during the early stages of the financing process. These findings were subjected to a two-stage least squares analysis and Heckman selection models.
New Product Design (NPD) process involves multiple phases in which a designer or an engineer shares their idea through verbal and visual presentation. Specifically, during the early concept selection phase, designers often pitch their ideas to peers, investors, and consumers to communicate their developing ideas. During this process, the audiences’ perception of the concept can be influenced by how it was presented. This article examines a) if the presence of visual aids can influence the concept evaluation, b) if the verbal presentation quality can affect how the concept value is perceived, and c) if product design experts can see the value of a concept beyond how it was presented. The results showed that whether visual or verbal, presentation quality can affect how the audience evaluates the concept that is being presented. In addition, contrary to what was expected, it was found that the design experts were more influenced by the presentation quality than the non-experts.
In the present era, esthetics has become an important dimension in dental practice as parents and children are equally self-conscious of their appearance. Children now desire to possess an aesthetically pleasing smile. Harmonizing an esthetic smile integrates facial and dental components. Since the scientific data on pediatric esthetics are limited, the aim of the study was to evaluate esthetic parameters of the face and components of smile in children with deciduous dentition.
: After fulfilling inclusion criteria, 3 sets of facial photographs of 100 children were obtained, comprising of frontal at rest, frontal smile and profile at rest images under standardised photographic technique. Linear measurements of facial and dental parameters were assessed with the help of Adobe photoshop and static norms were obtained by taking the average value. Subjective evaluation was performed by a group of professionals using Q-sort technique to list the attractive features in children.
Static norms were obtained for facial and dental parameters. Attractive children showed decreased facial height, anterior lower facial height, vermilion height and bigonial width. They also displayed decreased smile index and buccal corridor ratio along with parallel smile arc and more than 3/4th of crown height visibility during smiling.
Attractive children presented facial and dental parameters variable from normative values.
: The study results can be utilised during restorative and prosthetic rehabilitation among children to improve esthetics.
Humans are a social species with a high degree of information sharing. Character information is transferred between individuals frequently. Making a decision about who to mate with is one of the most consequential choices an individual makes, hence it pays to attend to any cheaply available mate-relevant information on offer. Building on previous research reporting a mating advantage for men romantically associated with women, here we present 3 studies examining the effects of being popular with the opposite sex. In all three studies men and women were presented with (and asked to evaluate) visual profiles of individuals of the opposite sex. Study 1 (N = 294) found that both men and women evaluate a man as more creative and socially skilled when he is attractive, and that women regard him as having higher mate value when his female friends are attractive. Study 2 (N = 233) found that men, but not women, considered profiles that were highly popular with the opposite sex to be more desirable. Study 3 (N = 765) found that neither men’s nor women’s desirability ratings of opposite-sex others were influenced by how popular that individual was with members of the opposite sex. It was concluded that while both men and women can be influenced by social information implicitly offered by others, this phenomenon is quite nuanced. Several possible theoretical and methodological explanations are considered, adding valuable knowledge to the existing body of research about mate copying propensity.
Background:
Traditional approaches to lower face contouring involve ostectomy of the mandibular angle or body. More recently, nonsurgical techniques have gained popularity, including neurotoxin injection to the masseter muscle. This study aims to evaluate layperson perceptions of patient attractiveness and personality traits following lower face contouring using either surgical or nonsurgical treatment.
Methods:
In this survey study distributed via Amazon's Mechanical Turk, respondents viewed a series of 14 patient images obtained in clinic before and after surgical or nonsurgical jawline slimming, or without any facial aesthetic procedure. Respondents rated changes in attractiveness and personality trait scores between the before and after image (score: -50 to 50, with 50 representing the greatest posttreatment increase and 0 representing no change). We used descriptive statistics and multivariable regression to determine differences in respondent ratings between patient images.
Results:
A total of 415 respondents (mean age 38 years, 50.6% female) successfully completed the survey. Compared to patients who underwent nonsurgical treatment, those who received surgery had significantly greater increases in perceived attractiveness (P < 0.001), femininity (P < 0.001), friendliness (P < 0.001), intelligence (P < 0.001), trustworthiness (P < 0.001), financial wealthiness (P < 0.001), dominance (P < 0.01), and self-esteem (P < 0.001). Gonial angles increased and jaw widths decreased following both surgical and nonsurgical intervention, with no statistically significant difference between treatment groups.
Conclusions:
From the layperson perspective, surgical compared to nonsurgical jawline contouring offers greater improvements in perceptions of attractiveness and favorable personality traits.
The increase in longevity makes it necessary to take care of the quality of life of senior citizens. Ageing is accompanied by alterations leading to an increased risk of falling. A study conducted at the Charité Hospital in Saint-Etienne (42) showed that a cosmetic procedure with an impact on the appearance could improve the mood and the walking capacity of the senior citizen, but also have an effect on stress and immunity.
How do top executives’ aesthetic attributes, such as their physical (e.g., attractiveness) and vocal (e.g., voice pitch) features, shape their firms and their own careers? Whereas strategic leadership scholars mostly have focused on top executives’ cognitive, psychological, and affective attributes, researchers increasingly have focused on this research question as well. As a result, a substantial body of research has emerged, as evidenced by the sixty-five empirical studies we located. Our review of the literature indicates that aesthetic attributes are related to executives’ careers and organizational outcomes in important ways, including executive selection and firm strategy. There also appear to be important contingencies, such as other individual differences and cultural factors, that shape these relationships. However, we conclude that there are important theoretical and methodological shortcomings in this literature and that addressing these issues is critical to validating extant findings, establishing more legitimacy, and moving this literature forward.
People usually enjoy interacting with persons who are physically attractive or socially powerful. However, the embarrassment they happen to have experienced in an earlier, unrelated situation can sometimes inhibit them from doing so. Feelings of embarrassment increase individuals’ concern about their ability to present themselves in a positive light and activate more general concepts associated with this concern. Therefore, once these concepts become accessible in memory, they can lead the individuals to avoid interacting with a person on whom they wish to make a good impression (for example, a physically attractive member of the opposite sex or a person who has social power over them). Moreover, this is true even though the person has no knowledge of the incident that had led to their embarrassment. These effects are particularly pronounced among individuals with an interdependent self-construal. The effects are unique to embarrassment and do not generalize to other self-conscious emotions.
As novas tendências de consumo transformaram os hábitos de compra dos homens, que se tornaram mais preocupados com a aparência e autoimagem, emergindo uma nova figura, conceituada como homem metrossexual. Há pelo mundo alguns estudos sobre este consumidor, que corroboram que este homem faz parte de um novo perfil de consumidor masculino, contudo, não há conhecido um estudo que fizera uma interlocução entre a vaidade deste consumidor e sua relação com hábitos de consumo de produtos de beleza, demonstrando uma lacuna para a pesquisa com este consumidor, sendo esta a proposta deste estudo.
Palavras-chave: Beleza Masculina; Consumidor Metrossexual; Homem Narcisista.
Abstract: New consumption trends have transformed the purchasing habits of men, who have become more concerned with appearance and self-image, thus allowing a new figure to emerge, namely metrosexual men. There are some studies on this kind of consumer around the world, which corroborate that it is part of a new profile of male consumer, however, there is no known study verifying the relation between the vanity of this kind of consumer and his consumption habits of beauty products, demonstrating a gap in research to be addressed in this study. Este trabalho está licenciado com uma Licença Creative Commons-Atribuição-NãoComercial 4.0 Internacional.
Meaning in life is a fundamental human need and recent research has begun to explore how individual differences in the need for meaning relate to beliefs and behaviors, particularly those involving religion and spirituality. In the present studies, we expanded on recent research to examine the relation between the need for meaning and community-focused motivation and behavior. In Study 1 (N = 399), we explored the relation between need for meaning and a wide range of aspirations, finding that this need is associated with intrinsic, but not extrinsic, goals and especially community-focused goals. In Study 2 (N = 611), we tested the effects of need for meaning on indicators of community-focused prosocial motivation and behavior, controlling for religiosity and other variables. The need for meaning positively predicted most indicators of prosocial motivation and behavior. These findings, combined with previous research, suggest that the meaning motive orients people towards community.
The present study attempts to examine how people perceive nonconforming behavior and what do they infer about subjects who demonstrate nonconformity. Interviews were conducted to determine the operational definition and perception about non-conformity. Analysis of the interviews revealed that non-conformity is attributed to not abiding by the rules that have been defined or laid out by an authority in a particular context. Scenario-based experiments were conducted and the obtained data were analyzed to reach a conclusion regarding observers’ perception about non-conforming individuals in a collectivist culture. The results showed that nonconforming behavior leads to a negative inference about status and competence. Also, we found that the attractiveness of non-conforming individuals does not lessen the negative inferences derived by the observers in a collectivist culture. The findings can be extended to devise several communication and signaling strategies to influence the mass behavior in a collectivist culture, like India. The study provides us insights about achieving social objectives as well as driving behavioral change in a collectivist context.
Marketing messages socialise individuals into believing that (amongst other practices) consuming cosmetics is the key to beauty and such messages are now being targeted directly to pre-adolescents. Research shows marketing portrayals of beauty ideals are associated with body disillusionment; however, there is a lack of knowledge on how tweens' enculturation of the necessity to consume beauty products influences their personal development and perspectives of others. The present study examines tweens perceptions of girls who own makeup; 111 girls between 6 and 12 years drew and described a child who owned makeup and a child who did not own makeup, resulting in 222 drawings. The drawings and descriptive words were coded inductively using emerging themes and differences between the two drawings were analysed using SPSS and chi square analysis. Findings revealed girls who owned makeup were perceived to be more attractive, happy, and popular than girls who did not wear makeup, however, they were also perceived to be ‘nastier' than girls who did not own makeup. The findings revealed tweens are enculturated into contemporary beauty ideals and hold strong stereotypes regarding owning makeup. Interpreted through the lens of sociocultural theory and the Halo Effect, findings are discussed in terms of how such ideals shape tweens expectations of others and ultimately may shape their own personal behaviour with regards to social interactions, roles and activities engaged in. We argue that the beauty ideal stereotypes associated with tween cosmetic ownership may be in reality, less than ideal. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Previous research has demonstrated that imagined contact is useful to reducing prejudice against minorities (e.g. Turner & Crisp, 2010). In this research, we investigated whether imagined contact increases attraction to physically unattractive women, and whether this effect is moderated by perceiver's physical attractiveness and appearance orientation in romantic relationships. Single male participants (n = 98) responded to items assessing their physical attractiveness and appearance orientation, and then were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions. In the imagined contact condition, participants were told to imagine communicating with a physically unattractive woman and come up with some interesting things about her. In the control condition, participants were told to simply imagine a physically unattractive woman. Next, participants saw a picture of a physically unattractive woman and rated her likeability, perceived attractiveness, and willingness to ask her out, which were averaged to form the composite measure of attraction. We found a significant main effect of imagined contact, as expected. This main effect was moderated by appearance orientation, but not by perceivers’ physical attractiveness. The effect of imagined contact was significant among those low in appearance orientation, but not among those high in appearance orientation.
The notion that people select their friends is perhaps trite. No one would doubt that individuals have a say in deciding which acquaintances will become friends and which will not. Often this process may be portrayed as something akin to a beauty contest: Individuals acquire a certain asset value contingent upon the socially desirable characteristics they possess, and this value determines their access to rewarding social relations. If such an account were correct, then friendship, social activity, and satisfaction should reveal markedly skewed distributions, with those enjoying an abundance of desirable traits being most rewarded.
This paper offers a review about the still neglected and manifestly complex effects of cosmetics use, especially facial make-up, on personality inferences and thus social perception. Sometimes positive and sometimes negative, like those related to physical attractiveness, these effects appear irreducible to the latter and thus seem to reflect the intervention of an independent stereotype, relative to that on beauty. Some prospects are suggested and then the stake attached to further developments in this area is emphasized, most notably due to the increasing use of cosmetics in our societies and its probable impact on social interaction.
Our society highly values physical attractiveness. Therefore, in the pursuit of attractiveness, many people may become highly involved with adornments. This paper argues that many of these adornment related activities qualify as significant forms of recreation, yet remain understudied. Adornment-related recreation is discussed and possible influences on activity levels are described. An empirical study of adornment-related recreation among female college undergraduates is also presented. Results suggest that level of social influence and self-perceived attractiveness are effective predictors of such activity. Finally, a future research agenda is proposed.
Negative labels affect the way people view themselves; and these unbeneficial habits involve non-acceptance. It is assumed that individuals encounter branding with stigma due to the negative features associated with their affiliations based on dispositions and values that are widely agreed upon. There are cases that happen because of the environment's discriminatory attitudes, prototyped expectations, and biased judgments. Some individuals are labeled for their substance abuse, physical abnormalities, sexual orientation, or deviant actions. Discussed here are coping mechanisms under the premises of attachment theory, which puts forward the existence of an eternal psychological connection between human beings. Consequences of these negative habits depend on the response of the target agents and their self schemas. Moreover, the study asserts that stigmatized people are relatively better at coping with prejudicecompared to non-stigmatized ones because these labeled individuals are exposed to opportunities to discover and to improve themselves.
Achieving Soft Tissue Closure in Immediate Implant Therapy Flapless Implant Installation Preserving Biological Soft Tissue Contours References
This study experimentally tested whether individuals have a tendency to associate attractive voices with attractive faces and, alternately, unattractive voices with unattractive faces. Participants viewed pairings of facial photographs of attractive and unattractive individuals and had listened to attractive and unattractive voice samples and were asked to indicate which facial picture they thought was more likely to be the speaker of the voice heard. Results showed that there was an overall tendency to associate attractive voices with attractive faces and unattractive voices with unattractive faces, suggesting that a “what-sounds-beautiful-looks-beautiful” stereotype exists. Interestingly, there was an even stronger propensity to pair unattractive voices to unattractive faces than for the attractive voice–face matching.
This chapter deals with the compensatory strategies that are often adopted by people who can neither avoid being victims of prejudice, nor live in peace in the face of such social prejudice. In particular, two different compensation strategies have been highlighted, which are also known as the primary and secondary compensation. The basic similarities between the challenges in the path of effective functioning and prejudices are discussed in detail in the opening section of the chapter. The perceived images of a person being “heavyweight” also have an effect on other peoples' behavior toward him/her. It is also highlighted that such prejudice, in fact, complicates the situation of “heavyweight” people all the more. The personal skill levels of an individual can be subjected to prejudice because of the individual's obesity. As a compensatory strategy for bringing down the differences between situational requirements and skill levels, such stigmatized individuals often learn to function with prejudice. While compensation may help in reducing stress and improving performance, over compensation may have disastrous effects.
Increasing attention is being paid to the fair treatment of individuals in society and in organizational contexts. Fair treatment issues are a concern of special importance to individuals who are stigmatized by virtue of their standing on variables such as physical attractiveness, physical and psychological handicaps, and race. Theories and models from social psychology, political psychology, sociology, and other academic disciplines provide a number of useful explanations of stigmatization and its consequences. Stigma-related issues are only infrequently studied by individuals in industrial and organizational psychology and closely allied fields. This chapter stresses on the need for industrial and organizational psychologists and researchers in closely allied fields to pay much more attention to stigmas and stigma-related problems in organizational settings. The chapter considers the nature of stigmas and the processes through which individuals become stigmatized, and then deals with the stigmas of race, physical unattractiveness (unattractiveness), and handicaps. It also describes strategies that might be used to deal with problems that stigmatized individuals encounter in organizational contexts, and considers issues that relate to research on stigmas in organizational contexts.
Social Perception and Social Reality
reviews the evidence in social psychology and related fields and reaches three conclusions: 1. Although errors, biases, and self-fulfilling prophecies in person perception, are real, reliable, and occasionally quite powerful, on average, they tend to be weak, fragile and fleeting; 2. Perceptions of individuals and groups tend to be at least moderately, and often highly accurate; and 3. Conclusions based on the research on error, bias, and self-fulfilling prophecies routinely greatly overstates their power and pervasiveness, and consistently ignores evidence of accuracy, agreement, and rationality in social perception. The weight of the evidence – including some of the most classic research widely interpreted as testifying to the power of biased and self-fulfilling processes – is that interpersonal expectations related to social reality primarily because they reflect rather than cause social reality. This is the case not only of teacher expectations, but also social stereotypes, both as perceptions of groups, and as the bases of expectations regarding individuals. The time is long overdue to replace cherry-picked and unjustified stories emphasizing error, bias, the power of self-fulfilling prophecies and the inaccuracy of stereotypes with conclusions that more closely correspond to the full range of empirical findings, which includes multiple failed replications of classic expectancy studies, meta-analyses consistently demonstrating small or at best moderate expectancy effects, and high accuracy in social perception.
Photographs were taken of unattractive female confederates. After professional make-up work and hairstyling, photographs of these individuals were re-taken. Independent evidence was gathered to support the classifications “unattractive” and “attractive” as describing the pre-post conditions. 167 subjects were shown these photographs and rated or rank-ordered the stimulus figures on a variety of dimensions. Interpersonal attraction covaried with physical attractiveness but there was no tendency to attribute more positive personality traits to physically attractive individuals. The results were similar to those of one prior study which also involved an experimental manipulation of physical attractiveness.
A set of archival data was used to test the hypothesis that physical attractiveness is positively associated with socioeconomic status among men. Consistent with earlier research, more attractive men earned equivalent grades while undergraduates. They were also no more likely to have subsequently earned a graduate degree or to have held jobs characterized by higher status as indexed by Duncan (1961) prestige scores. Attractiveness itself was stable over the 25 yr. for those initially judged to be intermediate in attractiveness. Those who were initially most and least attractive were judged to have declined and increased, respectively, over the period in question, providing evidence for a regression toward the mean.
The few investigations of the relationship between physical attractiveness and psychosocial functioning among clinical groups have typically employed small samples of female patients who varied widely in length of hospitalization at the time of study The present investigation examined the relationship between physical attractiveness, rated by both self and independent observers, and indices of maladjustment for 34 male and 42 female newly admitted psychiatric inpatients. The measures of personality and psychopathology included clinical diagnosis (schizophrenic vs nonschizophrenic), chronicity, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), and measures of trait anxiety and locus of control. When patients' age and socioeconomic status were controlled for, lower levels of observer-rated physical attractiveness were associated with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and with less trait anxiety and more frequent and longer prior hospitalizations. In a multivariate analysis, however, the latter indices did...
This chapter discusses physical attractiveness in social interactions. Physical attractiveness is, in many ways, a homely variable. The physical attractiveness variable is unpretentious for at least two reasons. First, it is unlikely that it will be found to be orthogonal to other dimensions, primarily intelligence, socioeconomic status, and perhaps genetically determined behavioral predispositions associated with morphological characteristics. Second, it seems highly unlikely that physical attractiveness will ever form the core concept of a psychological theory, even a much needed social perceptual theory, which will illuminate the way to useful and interesting predictions about social relationships. The chapter focuses on recent social psychological evidence, which suggests that even esthetic attractiveness may be a useful dimension for understanding certain social phenomena, and, perhaps, for illuminating some personality and developmental puzzles as well. Perception of the physical attractiveness level of another appears to be influenceable by the affective and experiential relationship between the evaluator and the person whose physical attractiveness level is to be judged, as well as by factors unique to the evaluator and the setting in which evaluations are made, although none of these factors have been the subject of much study. The impact of physical attractiveness upon the individual has been highlighted in the chapter.
Rosenthal and Jacobson found that a teacher's expectations about a child's behavior strongly influence his actual behavior. Generally, teachers form their first impressions of children, and thus develop their expectations for them, from two sources of information--the children's school record and their physical appearance. In this experiment, teachers were given objective information, presumably about a child's scholastic and social potential, accompanied by a photograph of an attractive or an unattractive boy or girl. It was found that the child's attractiveness was significantly associated with the teacher's expectations about how intelligent the child was, how interested in education his parents were, how far he was likely to progress in school, and how popular he would be with his peers.
Most previous research has investigated the impact of physical attractiveness on young adults' first impressions of peers. The present study examined the relationship between physical attractiveness and peer perception at an earlier period of peer interaction in a setting where subjectes were personally acquainted. Using a picture-board sociometric technique, young children (4-6 years) indicated which classmates they liked and disliked and also nominated peers who exhibited various social behaviors. With the exception of younger females, unattractive children were relatively less popular than attractive children. Furthermore, unattractive children, particularly males were more frequently nominated as exhibiting antisocial behaviors than were attractive children. In contrast, attractive children tended to be perceived as more self-sufficient and independent in behavior than unattractive children.
Examined whether physically attractive stimulus persons, both male and female, are (a) assumed to possess more socially desirable personality traits than physically unattractive stimulus persons, and (b) expected to lead better lives (e.g., be more competent husbands and wives and more successful occupationally) than unattractive stimulus persons. Sex of Subject * Sex of Stimulus Person interactions along these dimensions also were investigated. Results with 30 male and 30 female undergraduates indicate a "what is beautiful is good" stereotype along the physical attractiveness dimension with no Sex of Judge * Sex of Stimulus interaction. Implications of such a stereotype on self-concept development and the course of social interaction are discussed.
Conducted a computer dating field study as a test of the nonlaboratory generalizability of attraction research. A 50-item questionnaire of attitudes and personality was administered to 420 undergraduates, and 44 male-female pairs were selected on the basis of maximal or minimal similarity of responses. Each couple was introduced, given differential information about the basis for their matching, and asked to spend 30 min. together on a "coke date." Afterward, they returned to the E and were independently assessed on a series of measures. It was found that attraction was significantly related to similarity and to physical attractiveness. Physical attractiveness was also significantly related to ratings of desirability as a date, as a spouse, and to sexual attractiveness. Both similarity and attractiveness were related to the physical proximity of the 2 individuals while they were talking to the E after the date. In a follow-up investigation at the end of the semester, similarity and physical attractiveness were found to predict accurate memory of the date's name, incidence of talking to one another in the interim since the coke date, and desire to date the other person in the future. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Previous studies have failed to find support for the hypothesis, derived from Level of Aspiration Theory, that individuals chose to date those whose “social desirability” level is similar to their own. In the present experiments, which were designed to test the matching hypothesis, the salience of possible rejection by the dating choice was varied. Both experiments found support for the principle of matching in social choice. This support was obtained, however, not just under conditions in which rejection was presumably salient but for all conditions of choice. This and additional findings were discussed.
Measured 100 male and 100 female undergraduates' attraction to opposite-sex others of either high, medium, or low physical attractiveness and of either similar, moderately similar, or dissimilar attitudes in terms of Ss' liking for other, of preference for other as a coworker, and of the probability that S would consider other as a dating or marriage partner. Major results indicate that Ss' attraction was greater to physically attractive rather than unattractive and to similar rather than dissimilar others. Similarity had a greater effect for females than males on liking and working, while physical attractiveness had a greater effect for males than females on working, dating, and marrying. Comparisons among the dependent variables revealed that physical attractiveness had a greater effect on dating than on liking or marrying for all Ss, although the difference was greater for males. Self-rating of attractiveness was found to be related to date selection. Relative to Ss who rated themselves as attractive, unattractive Ss were more likely to consider unattractive others and less likely to consider attractive others as a date. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Preliminary evidence indicates that effects of a physical attractiveness stereotype may be present at an early childhood developmental level. Several of the mediating processes that may be responsible for these effects presuppose that adults display differential treatment toward attractive and unattractive children in circumstances in which their behavior is identical. The present study used a situation integral to the socialization process, that in which the child has committed a transgression and the socializing adult must evaluate the child's behavior. 243 female undergraduates rated 7-yr-olds reading descriptions of the act and viewing a photograph of the child involved. Within a 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 design (Attractiveness of Child*Severity of Transgression*Sex of Child*Type of Transgression), support was found for the hypotheses that (a) the severe transgression of an attractive child is less likely to be seen as reflecting an enduring disposition toward antisocial behavior than that of an unattractive child and (b) the transgression itself tends to be evaluated less negatively when commited by an attractive child. No differences in intensity of advocated punishment were found. These and additional findings are discussed.
It was proposed that an individual would most often expect to date, would try to date, and would like a partner of approximately his own social desirability. In brief, we attempted to apply level of aspiration theory to choice of social goals. A field study was conducted in which individuals were randomly paired with one another at a "Computer Dance." Level of aspiration hypotheses were not confirmed. Regardless of S's own attractiveness, by far the largest determinant of how much his partner was liked, how much he wanted to date the partner again, and how often he actually asked the partner out was simply how attractive the partner was. Personality measures such as the MMPI, the Minnesota Counseling Inventory, and Berger's Scale of Self- Acceptance and intellectual measures such as the Minnesota Scholastic Aptitude Test, and high school percentile rank did not predict couple compatability. The only important determinant of S's liking for his date was the date's physical attractiveness.
Physical attractiveness Advances in experimental social psychology
- E Berscheid
- E H Walster
Berscheid, E., & Walster, E. H. Physical attractiveness. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology. New York: Academic Press, 1974. pp. 158-215.