User:Magolaya/Physical attractiveness stereotype

What is Beautiful is Good

• Experiment meant to determine whether physically attractive individuals are perceived as having more socially desirable personality traits and expected to lead better lives

• Goal is to determine if a physical attractiveness stereotype exists and what the content of that stereotype is (along several dimensions)
• Lead better lives
  • Generally expected to be better husbands and wives, better parents, more successful socially and occupationally
• The interactions of the sex of the observer and sex of the “stimulus” were also measured to account for jealousy
• Study design
  • College students were given pictures of attractive, average, and unattractive individuals then asked to rate them on various dimensions
• results
  • “whether the rater was the same or the opposite sex as the stimulus person, attractive stimulus persons were judged as more socially desirable”
    • Jealousy within sexes was not observed
    • Interaction between sex of the observer and stimulus was insignificant
  • Attractive individuals were perceived to be more socially desirable than unattractive
  • Attractive individuals were expected to
    • get better jobs
    • be more competent spouses
    • have happier marriages
    • have happier social and professional lives
    • be happier overall
    • find a more acceptable partner for marriage
    • marry earlier, less likely to be single
  • Attractive individuals were NOT expected to
    • be better parents

Job-related outcomes

• based on the implicit personality theory
• attractive individuals experience more positive job-related outcomes than unattractive individuals
• attractiveness was as important to men as for women
• attractive individuals fared better in terms of: suitability ranking, hiring decision, promotion decision, predicted success, performance evaluation, employment potential
• does not differ based on the sex of the target
• consistent with implicit personality theory, attractive individuals fare better than less attractive
• inconsistent with lack of fit model-- there was no interaction between the sex of the individual and the sex-type of the job

theoretical perspective

• impression formation models-- continuum and dual process models
  • perceivers initially categorize someone based on apparent physical characteristics
• implicit personality theory and lack of fit model posit that attractiveness evokes stereotype-based expectations and individuals are then evaluated on those expectations

intelligence

• attractive people perceived as more intellectually competent
• this effect was stronger for males than females

References

What is beautiful is good.

The Effects of Physical Attractiveness, Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Gender of Defendants and Victims on Judgments of Mock Jurors: A Meta-Analysis

Physical Attractiveness and Intellectual Competence: A Meta-Analytic Review

Physical Attractiveness Stereotype

The physical attractiveness stereotype is the tendency to assume that people who are physically attractive, based on social beauty standards, also possess other desirable personality traits. Research has shown that those who are physically attractive are viewed as more intelligent, competent, and socially desirable. The target benefits from what has been coined as pretty privilege, namely social, economic, and political advantages or benefits. Physical attractiveness can have a significant effect on how people are judged in terms of employment or social opportunities, friendship, sexual behavior, and marriage.

Within organizational settings, studies have shown that being perceived as more attractive is associated with positive job-related outcomes such as enhanced perceptions of job qualifications, recommendations from receiving higher starting salaries and higher incomes. Additionally, people benefitting from pretty privilege are treated more leniently in criminal and civil proceedings.

A meta-analysis has found that people across cultures, genders, and ages agree on who is attractive. This suggests that the judgement of physical attractiveness is likely fixed at an early stage in our evolution and hard-wired in human genetics. For instance, six-month-olds focus longer on attractive faces than unattractive ones. It seems that the physical attractiveness stereotype is rooted in human genetics, however, social influences such as the media, the interpersonal family, and peer environment can play a role in reinforcing the stereotype by basing the social beauty standard on it. This might be the reason that the effects of physical attractiveness can vary depending on additional factors like gender, race, and other social identities.

History

The physical attractiveness stereotype was first formally observed in a study done by Karen Dion, Ellen Berscheid, and Elaine Walster in 1972. Study participants, all university students, were told by the experimenters that they would be tested on how well they could "read" a person after seeing a single photo of them, and that their performance would be compared to individuals that had been trained in reading a person based on body language and other interpersonal skills. The subjects were then given three envelopes that contained a photo of either a male or female near the subjects' age, who the researchers had categorized as either attractive, average, or unattractive. The goal of this study was to ascertain whether physical attractiveness affected how individuals were perceived, specifically whether they were seen as having more socially desirable personality traits and perceived to live a better life. The researchers found that overall attractive individuals were rated as having more socially desirable personality traits. Moreover, physically attractive individuals were expected to get a better job, be better spouses, have happier marriages, have better social and professional lives, and be married earlier. The only dimension that was not rated positively was parenting, where physically attractive individuals were not rated higher on the expectation of being a better parent.

Experimental Evidence

In the years since the publication of the original study, further research has bolstered the physical attractiveness stereotype and expanded its influence into other areas.

Intelligence Ratings

Physical attraction also has a strong relationship with how intelligent one is perceived. For both adults and children, attractive individuals are expected to be more intellectually competent than unattractive individuals. This effect is stronger in adults and also stronger in males. Between equally attractive males and females, the males will be perceived as more attractive. This perception exists despite little to no evidence that attractiveness is correlated with actual competence.

Workplace

Research has shown that this stereotype exists in the workplace as well. A meta-analysis looking at how one's level of physical attractiveness can affect various job-related outcomes showed a strong relationship between attractive individuals and better job outcomes. The report accumulated over 60 study results and showed that attractive individuals were perceived as better employees. They are more likely to be hired and promoted, as well as ranked higher in performance evaluations and employment potential than unattractive counterparts. This stereotype is present for and affects both men and women as neither the gender of the attractive individual nor the gender of the observer influences the relationship.

Judicial System

Based on an extensive review of jury research, where a fake jury is presented with a mock trial to better understand how their decisions are made, it was found that the physical attractiveness stereotype does have an effect on jury rulings. Juries are more likely to find a physically unattractive defendant guilty than an attractive defendant. Additionally, for certain crimes, juries recommend lesser punishments for attractive individuals. In the case of robbery, rape, and cheating, the attractiveness of the defendant contributes to a lesser sentence. However, in the case of negligent homicide, attractive individuals are actually given a greater punishment than their unattractive counterparts. Researchers posit that this occurs because attractive individuals are expected to be better than unattractive individuals, they are held to a higher standard. Therefore, they are treated harsher when they make a mistake, such as in the case of negligent homicide.

Education

In a review of studies done that examine perception of students in the education system, it was found that attractive students were treated more favorably by their teachers than unattractive students. Consistent with the perception that attractive individuals are more intelligent, research shows that teachers have higher expectations for attractive students. They expect these students to be more intelligent, earn better grades, and have better social attributes than other, more unattractive students. Furthermore, various studies done between 1960-1985 show that attractive students actually earned higher scores on standardized tests. Researchers believe this is an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy, where the teacher's higher expectations for the attractive students cause them to work harder and perform better.

Theories

There are a couple proposed theoretical underpinnings for the physical attractiveness stereotype.

Implicit Personality Theory

The implicit personality theory refers to the unconscious assumptions one makes about another's personality based on their characteristics. These assumptions can be based on other personality traits but in the context of the physical attractiveness stereotype, they are based on physical traits. Using this theory, researchers explain the physical attractiveness stereotype in that attractive physical features are linked with positive assumptions of personality and unattractive physical features are linked with negative assumptions of personality. These unconscious linkages can explain why those seen as more physically attractive are treated and perceived differently.

Evolution

The principle of evolutionary biology is that, in case of genetic variation within a population in a characteristic, the form which improves the individual’s chance of survival and reproduction will be selected over other forms and becomes more frequent within the population. Evolutionary psychologists suggest that the physical attractiveness stereotype has evolved for individuals to assess potential mates and reproductive partners and as a mean to assess our status ranking among same-sex members.

The reproductive strategy of women and men differ; however, both include advertising to potential mates and competing with same-sex members to demonstrate one’s value. Attractiveness or beauty is the display of these traits and one of the most important predictors of reproductive success. Physical attractiveness may have evolved as a signal of good health, fitness, and genetic quality. Certain physical features, including symmetry, clear skin, and waist-to-hip ratio, signal reproductive health. Individuals with these features are perceived as more attractive because they possess genes which they could pass on to the next generation.

The physical attractiveness stereotype may have also evolved as a result of natural selection. Attractive individuals may have a greater chance of mating and passing on desirable traits and are therefore preferred as mates over others based on their physical attractiveness.

Physical attractiveness, therefore, provides the target with direct benefits where they gain directly for themselves and their offspring, and indirect benefits whereby the target gains genetic benefits to the offspring.

Neuroscience

Here only the brain regions used in assessing facial beauty will be discussed, since there is little research of how the brain processes body judgements.

The brain uses at least three cognitive domains to decide the value of attractiveness. At first, the occipital and temporal regions of the cortex process face views. The information about facial features is then passed on to the fusiform face area of the fusiform gyrus (FG) for facial recognition. When judging an unfamiliar face, the FG responds more strongly to attractive faces than unattractive ones, suggesting that the recognition of attractive features occurs even before the rest of the brain is included in the evaluation.

The second module interprets facial movements and then interacts with other brain regions such as the amygdala, insula, and limbic system for the emotional content of facial expressions and movements.

Information is then passed on to the third module, the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) which makes judgments of beauty and produces the neurological rewards, namely dopamine and other neurotransmitters, for finding the face's beauty. The OFC is more active when viewing an attractive face versus an unattractive face. These areas of the bran are also associated with reward processing and regulating experiences of pleasure motivation. Researchers suggest that our brains find attractive faces rewarding which could be part of the reason more attractive people benefit from pretty privilege.