The influence of facial attractiveness on imitation

People judge, evaluate, and treat attractive people better than moderately attractive or unattractive people [Langlois, J. H., Kalakanis, L., Rubenstein, A. J., Larson, A., Hallam, M., & Smoot, M. (2000). Maxims or myths of beauty? A meta-analytic and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 390–423]. The fact that individuals like attractive people combined with the finding that individuals imitate the ones they like, suggests that they may be more prone to imitate attractive people. The present research extends previous work on attractiveness and imitation by examining this hypothesis. Using a novel coloring procedure, we show that attractive females are imitated more than unattractive females (Experiment 1) and that attractive males are imitated more than unattractive males (Experiment 2). Importantly, this imitation occurs without any direct or anticipated contact with the target individual and without awareness of the influence of attractiveness on imitation behavior.     

Perceptions of self-disclosers: Effects of sex and physical attractiveness1

Five experiments were conducted to study perceptions of self-disclosure by attractive and unattractive males and females. Results showed that highly disclosing females were preferred over females with medium or low self-disclosure when their self-disclosure was about a parental suicide or about sexual attitudes. Highly disclosing females were evaluated less favorably than females with medium self-disclosure when their self-disclosure was about aggressive feelings of competitiveness. Highly disclosing males were evaluated less favorably than males with medium and low self-disclosure on all disclosure topics. Disclosers with high physical attractiveness were evaluated more favorably than disclosers with low physical attractiveness, but there was considerable variation among subject populations.     

An experimental investigation of a psychoeducational strategy designed to reduce men's endorsement of societal ideals of women's attractiveness

The current study evaluated whether a psychoeducational manipulation, focused on reducing an unrealistic view of women's attractiveness, might affect men's ratings of the attractiveness of females. The participants were 159 male undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to four conditions: psychoeducational message (beauty ideals; marketing strategies) and photo exposure (attractive females; household products). The results indicated that males pre-exposed to attractive female images subsequently evaluated average females as less attractive than those exposed to household products. However, a psychoeducational information condition designed to challenge "beauty ideals" did not reduce the adverse exposure effect and was comparable in effectiveness to the "marketing strategies" manipulation. The limitations of the findings are discussed and avenues for future research in this area offered.     

Personality information: Does it influence attractiveness ratings of various body sizes?

In the present study, the influence of personality information on attractiveness ratings of different body sizes was examined. Specifically, participants were presented with either no personality information, negative information, or positive information about a hypothetical female target and asked to rate the smallest and largest figure that they would consider attractive for her using a figure rating scale. Consistent with the study hypotheses: (1) participants chose a wider range of figures as attractive for a female described to have a positive personality when compared to the range chosen when no personality information was provided; (2) females selected wider attractive ranges than males; and (3) other participant characteristics (i.e., physical appearance anxiety and body mass) were found to predict attractive ranges selected by participants. These findings may have implications for the treatment of body-image disturbance, as the findings suggest that personality, rather than appearance alone, may be a factor in perceptions of attractiveness of various body sizes.     

Does Human Facial Attractiveness Honestly Advertise Health? Longitudinal Data on an Evolutionary Question

Inspired by the evolutionary conjecture that sexually selected traits function as indicators of pathogen resistance in animals and humans, we examined the notion that human facial attractiveness provides evidence of health. Using photos of 164 males and 169 females in late adolescence and health data on these individuals in adolescence, middle adulthood, and later adulthood, we found that adolescent facial attractiveness was unrelated to adolescent health for either males or females, and was not predictive of health at the later times. We also asked raters to guess the health of each stimulus person from his or her photo. Relatively attractive stimulus persons were mistakenly rated as healthier than their peers. The correlation between perceived health and medically assessed health increased when attractiveness was statistically controlled, which implies that attractiveness suppressed the accurate recognition of health. These findings may have important implications for evolutionary models.     

“Single white male looking for thin,very attractive...”

Sociocultural pressures on women to be thin and physically attractive assume many forms today. When these external pressures are combined with the excessive demands many women already place on themselves in these areas, chronic dieting, and ultimately binge eating, often result (Agras & Kirkley, 1986; Hsu, 1989). The present study investigated the extent to which single women currently were receiving the message that physical attractiveness in general, and weight in particular, were crucial factors in being selected as a dating partner. A total of 283 male and 231 female personal ads from a singles' magazine were examined. Twenty-eight categories were created to label the qualities designated as desirable in a partner. As predicted, physical attractiveness was the characteristic most frequently sought by males (56.9%). Significantly fewer females (26.4%) required this in a prospective partner. Furthermore, requests for a thin partner were made by significantly more males (33.6%) than females (2.2%). Sex differences also were detected for the quality sought most often by females: interpersonal understanding. The results demonstrated that males still attributed greater importance to physical attractiveness and thinness than did females when selecting a date. Possible explanations for these different emphases were offered, and features that distinguished the “physical attractiveness” seekers from others were explored. The link with today's high rate of eating disorders among women was reappraised.     

Effects of sex,status, and mating cues on expected aggressive responses

The effect of sex, status, and mating cues on expected aggression was examined via three scenario‐based studies in which participants imagined themselves in a situation with a same‐sex instigator of a provocation. Participants were randomly assigned to receive a scenario, which included one of two levels of status of instigator (high, low), one of two levels of attractiveness of the instigator (unattractive, attractive), and one of two levels of provocation (apology, insult). Sex and dispositional aggressivity were also included in a full factorial design. Based on evolutionary psychology ideas, we anticipated that status and attractiveness would differentially influence expected aggression for men vs. women. Participants in Experiment 1 were instructed to imagine that they were alone, whereas participants in Experiments 2 and 3 imagined themselves in a situation that included mating‐related primes. In general expected aggression was greater for aggression‐prone participants and under conditions of provocation and/or a high‐status instigator. Experiments 2 and 3 found that, in the context of mate competition, sex differences in the effects of instigator provocation, status, and attractiveness emerged: greater aggressivity now only predicted more aggression for males but not females who were insulted; aggression was highest for females confronting an unattractive, high‐status instigator and for males confronting an attractive, high‐status instigator; females were more likely to aggress against a high‐status instigator, regardless of being in a steady relationship or a first date situation, but males were only more likely to aggress against a high‐status instigator in a first date situation. Aggr. Behav. 35:259–273, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Effects of sexual attitudes and physical attractiveness on person perception of men and women

A sample of 180 males and 180 females completed person perception measures for stimulus women who varied in physical attractiveness and permissiveness of sexual attitudes. The results indicated that both physical attractiveness and sexual attitudes had strong effects on peson perception. Physically attractive stimulus women were rated higher than the unattractive stimulus women on a physical appeal factor and an item measuring interpersonal attraction. The sexually conservative women were rated higher on an evaluative factor, lower on a personability factor, and higher on the interpersonal attraction item than the sexually permissive stimulus women. It was also found that the effects of physical attractiveness were greater for males than for females and that women rated the sexually permissive stimulus women less favorably than did men.     

The Aye of the Beholder: Susceptibility to Sexism and Beautyism in the Evaluation of Managerial Applicants1

Sex-typed college students (16 males and 16 females) and androgynous college students (16 males and 16 females) evaluated the resumes of fictitious applicants for a managerial position described as requiring interpersonal competencies. The applicant's physical attractiveness, qualifications, and sex were systematically varied in the resumes. Five-way analyses of variance were performed on the hiring decisions about the applicants and the perceived attractiveness, masculinity, femininity, and social desirability of the applicants. Hiring preferences were shown for attractive over unattractive applicants, for wellqualified over less qualified applicants, and among these preferred groups, males were favored over females. The subject's sex-role orientation predictably moderated the effect of the applicant's attractiveness but not the effect of the applicant's sex. Sex-typed subjects committed “beautyism” more than androgynous subjects did. The applicants' sex, qualifications, and attractiveness affected how they were perceived in terms of sex-role attributes as well as sex-irrelevant, socially desirable traits. Theoretical implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Ambiguity of acceptance,social desirability,and dating choice

Male subjects differing in social desirability (likableness, physical attractiveness) chose a date from an array of females of three levels of physical attractiveness. Choices were made under two conditions: one where acceptance was assured regardless of whom subject chose; the other where acceptance was left ambiguous. The findings were as follows: (a) subjects selected a more physically attractive female when assured of acceptance than when acceptance was left ambiguous; (b) subjects estimated that highly physically attractive females were less likely to accept them as a date than were either moderately physically attractive or physically unattractive females; (c) subjects' self-ratings of their likableness were not related to the physical attractiveness of their choices under either choice condition nor to their estimates of their chances that the females would accept them as a date; and (d) subjects' self-evaluated physical attractiveness, although unrelated to the physical attractiveness of the subjects' choices, did relate to subjects' estimates of their chances of acceptance. Highly physically attractive subjects estimated their chances of acceptance as better than did subjects who considered themselves low in physical attractiveness. The implications of the findings for the “matching hypothesis” are discussed.     

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Exploring the Effects of Attractiveness on Perception of Harassment

This study was designed to explore the effect of attractiveness on perceptions of sexual harassment. Male and female college students (N = 150) rated four scenarios depicting ambiguous incidents of sexual harassment, each paired with photos of a male boss and a female secretary. Male and female attractiveness was varied in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Participants were asked to rate each photo on a series of traits before making harassment judgments. Overall, females perceived more harassment. The behavior of attractive males was less likely to be seen as harassing. Attractive females were more likely to be seen as harassed, especially when the potential harasser was unattractive. The possible mechanisms underlying the effects of attractiveness were explored with the results supporting a direct effect of stereotypes over a mediating role for implicit personality theories.     

Beauty is in the sex of the beholder: An examination of the effects of interviewer characteristics on assessments of respondent attractiveness

Research exploring the effects of physical attractiveness frequently assesses attractiveness by employing subjective appraisals by independent raters. However, there is reason to believe that rater characteristics – especially their sex – may systematically bias subjective ratings of physical attractiveness. The current study explores this possibility by analyzing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 13,330). Analyses of these data revealed that ratings of physical attractiveness are significantly influenced by the sex of the interviewer/rater. Specifically, male raters were significantly less likely than female raters to assess males as attractive, very attractive, and very unattractive. The results are explained within the context of evolutionary psychology and illustrate a methodological concern for research on physical attractiveness.     

The Looks-Personality Relationship: Global Self-Orientations as Shared Precursors of Subjective Physical Attractiveness and Self-Ascribed Traits1

A global self-orientations model of the relationship between subjective physical attractiveness and personality is described and tested. This model, which proposes that self-esteem and two types of social desirability (self-presentation and self-deception) are causal antecedents in the self-rated looks-personality link, was supported in two studies. In Studies 1 (n= 243 females) and 2 (n= 160 males), self-esteem and social desirability independently had an impact on self-judgments of both physical attractiveness and personality, and statistically controlling for the impact of the global self-orientations substantially reduced the covariation between subjective attractiveness and personality scores. In addition, consistent with previous research, self-rated attractiveness was found to be significantly correlated with a wider range of personality attributes than was objective attractiveness.     

Effects of occupational choice and sex-role preferences on the attractiveness of competent men and women1

The present experiment assessed the impact of a person's sex role and occupational preferences on his/her social attractiveness, attractiveness as a coworker, and attractiveness to a prospective employer. Male and female subjects were provided information describing a competent male or a competent female stimulus person. Stimulus persons (SPs) were portrayed as favoring either traditionally masculine or traditionally feminine occupations, and as masculine or feminine in their sex-role preferences. As expected, both male and female SPs were seen as most socially attractive when their sex-role preferences were “gender consistent.” In contrast, subjects favored SPs who expressed masculine sex-role preferences when assessing the individual's attractiveness as a prospective employee. These findings were compared and contrasted with the results of earlier research, and the implications of sex-role deviance for males and for females were discussed.     

The Role of Friends’ Appearance and Behavior on Evaluations of Individuals on Facebook: Are We Known by the Company We Keep?

This research explores how cues deposited by social partners onto one’s online networking profile affect observers’ impressions of the profile owner. An experiment tested the relationships between both (a) what one’s associates say about a person on a social network site via “wall postings,” where friends leave public messages, and (b) the physical attractiveness of one’s associates reflected in the photos that accompany their wall postings on the attractiveness and credibility observers attribute to the target profile owner. Results indicated that profile owners’ friends’ attractiveness affected their own in an assimilative pattern. Favorable or unfavorable statements about the targets interacted with target gender: Negatively valenced messages about certain moral behaviors increased male profile owners’ perceived physical attractiveness, although they caused females to be viewed as less attractive.     

The effects of attitudes toward feminism and perceived feminism on physical attractiveness ratings

The effects of perceived feminism of females and attitudes toward feminism of males on physical attractiveness ratings of female stimulus persons (SPs) were investigated, using two alternative hypotheses: first, SPs who are perceived as feminists would be rated as less attractive than SPs not perceived as feminists; second, profeminist males would rate profeminist women as more attractive than nonfeminist women, and vice versa for nonfeminist males. Seventy-six male college students responded to the Smith-Ferree-Miller questionnaire on attitudes toward feminism and then rated on an 8-point scale of attractiveness 6 photographs of female SPs which had been selected from a pretested sample of 18 photographs. Perceived feminism of the SPs in the photographs was manipulated by presenting the raters with four attitude statements, two of which related to feminism. Although there were no main effects for the two variables, significant interaction did occur, confirming the second (attitude similarity) hypothesis. A negative halo effect, as opposed to a belief in the unattractiveness of feminists, was offered as an explanation of the difference in results between this study and the Goldberg, Gottesdiener, and Abramson (1975) study.     

两人和三人最后通牒博弈任务中嗓音吸引力对决策的影响

本研究用两人和三人最后通牒博弈任务探究男性嗓音吸引力对决策的影响。实验1发现, 高吸引力的嗓音会提高被试对不公平分配方案的接受率。实验2发现, 即使分配方案对第三方接受者公平, 对被试不公平, 第三方接受者的高吸引力嗓音仍然会提高被试对方案的接受率。综上, 嗓音吸引力可以诱发类似面孔吸引力的“美貌津贴”效应。     

If I'm not hot, are you hot or not? Physical attractiveness evaluations and dating preferences as a function of one's own attractiveness

Prior research has established that people's own physical attractiveness affects their selection of romantic partners. This article provides further support for this effect and also examines a different, yet related, question: When less attractive people accept less attractive dates, do they persuade themselves that the people they choose to date are more physically attractive than others perceive them to be? Our analysis of data from the popular Web site http://HOTorNOT.com suggests that this is not the case: Less attractive people do not delude themselves into thinking that their dates are more physically attractive than others perceive them to be. Furthermore, the results also show that males, compared with females, are less affected by their own attractiveness when choosing whom to date.     

Sex differences in the attractiveness of hunter‐gatherer and modern risks

When compared with other demographics, young males are more likely to take a variety of risks (like skateboarding, using drugs) and use risky behaviors to attract romantic partners. This study extended research on risk by assessing the attractiveness of 101 different kinds of risks performed by males and females. As predicted, factor analysis revealed that the attractiveness of diverse risks clustered around two major dimensions: risks like those faced by hunter‐gatherer humans (e.g., handling fire and dangerous animals) and risks that are uniquely modern (e.g., driving without seat belts). Additionally, results confirmed that modern risks were rated as unattractive for both sexes, whereas hunter‐gatherer risks were rated as especially attractive when performed by males. Discussion focuses on cultural and evolutionary explanations for the link between risk and attractiveness.