Physical Attractiveness and Popularity: The Mediating Role of Self-Perception

Subjective ratings of physical attractiveness were compared with objective ratings of attractiveness in the prediction of popularity. The relationships between Harter's (1979) Perceived Competency Scale for Children (PCSC) and both popularity and physical attractiveness were also examined. Fifty-three third-grade and 54 fifth-grade children were tested on the Harter scales and on a new 7-item scale of self-perceived attractiveness. Objective attractiveness ratings were provided by 30 other children of the same grades and sex. Popularity was assessed by sociometric nominations and ratings. The results replicated the moderate relationship of objective attractiveness and popularity found in prior studies. Self-perceived attractiveness was unrelated to popularity in third-grade children but was significantly related at the fifth-grade level. Subjective and objective attractiveness were inversely related at the third-grade level but were positively related in fifth graders. Objective attractiveness was unrelated to self-esteem at either grade level but subjective attractiveness predicted self-esteem for all the children.     

Physical Attractiveness and Candidate Evaluation: A Model of Correction

Voters typically evaluate an attractive candidate more favorably than an (otherwise equivalent) unattractive candidate. However, some voters “correct” for the biasing influence of physical appearance. This reduces, eliminates, or even reverses the physical attractiveness effect. Correction occurs when political experts evaluate a political candidate under nondistracting conditions. Under these “high cognitive capacity” conditions, voters primarily correct for physical unattractiveness. However, correction fails to occur when voters possess low levels of expertise or are distracted. Thus, in most circumstances, attractive candidates are evaluated more favorably than unattractive candidates. Two experiments provide support for this model of appearance‐based candidate evaluation.     

Physical Attractiveness Bias in Employee Termination

We examined the impact of attractiveness on employment termination decisions. After viewing a file that contained a poor performance review and a badge with a photograph of an extremely attractive, moderately attractive, or unattractive employee, 178 participants were asked if they would terminate the employee, rated how much they liked the employee, and made a judgment of attribution of her poor performance. Participants were willing to terminate the unattractive woman more frequently than the moderate or extremely attractive women. The participants also liked the unattractive woman less than the others. When asked to rate causes of poor performance, no differences were found based directly on attractiveness, but attributions mediated the relationship between liking ratings and termination decisions.     

Attention in Children: Conceptual and Methodological Issues

This commentary discusses conceptual and methodological issues in the assessment of attention in children. The five articles in this special issue are important advances in the study of attention in children with brain-related disorders. They provide important guidelines for future studies in this area: specification of the underlying model of attention, selection of tasks according to the model, and the use of multiple tasks in well-defined clinical populations.     

Gender,Physical Attractiveness,and Assertiveness

Abstract

This study was an examination of comfortable proxemic distances assumed by the interactants, female Canadian students. Previous studies were consistent with Hall'S (1959, 1966) cultural model only when the interactants were from the same cultural group. When they were from different cultural groups, however, the cultural model was not adequate: The findings were more consistent with a symbolic interactionist interpretation, namely, that a negotiation takes place and the comfortable distance is adjusted to that of both groups. In this study, we held cultural group and sex constant and introduced the problem of the interviewer'S retreat from the original comfortable distance established by the subject. In all cases, the subject re-established a new comfortable distance that was a compromise between the one originally chosen and the distance assumed by the interviewer.     

Physical Attractiveness and Psychological Adjustment Among Substance Abuse Inpatients: A Longitudinal Study1

Relations between psychological adjustment and physical attractiveness were examined longitudinally in substance abuse inpatients, controlling for the effects of length of drug abuse, length of inpatient stay, age, and socioeconomic status. Measures of adjustment and attractiveness were obtained during the first week of admission and six weeks later (within two weeks of discharge). Regression analyses indicated that initial attractiveness did not predict later adjustment, and initial adjustment did not predict later attractiveness. Partial correlation analyses revealed a positive association between attractiveness and adjustment at the first time point, but not at the later time point. These results suggest that physical attractiveness exerts only a temporary effect on judgments of adjustment in an inpatient setting. Attractiveness may affect decisions made when screening patients at mental health facilities, but may not affect decisions made over the full course of inpatient treatment.     

Physical Attractiveness and Altruism in Two Modified Dictator Games

Several studies find that male individuals are more altruistic toward attractive women, suggesting altruism may serve as a courtship display. Many studies exploring this phenomenon have used vignettes and facial images. We tested the sexual selection hypothesis as an explanation for altruistic behavior, where players played the dictator game with “live” participants. Two studies were conducted (Study 1, n = 212; Study 2, n = 188) where we manipulated stakes and anonymity between participants to explore the relationship between the dictator’s allocations and their perceived attractiveness of the recipient. We found no relationship between attractiveness and altruism. Dictators were consistently fair when allocating stakes, irrespective of the recipients’ attractiveness.     

Biases Influencing Recommendation Letter Contents: Physical Attractiveness and Gender1

This study investigated whether 2 well‐known biases, gender and physical appearance, influence readers' perceptions of different types of letters of recommendation (LORs; inflated vs. noninflated). Based on 244 participants, a main effect for letter type was found. Applicants with inflated letters were more likely to be hired and were predicted to become more successful, despite readers recognizing that the inflated letter contained exaggerations. A 3‐way interaction was also present. Gender and physical attractiveness did not influence reader perceptions when given an inflated letter, but when readers received a noninflated letter, attractive women were predicted to become most successful. These results demonstrate that readers may still be biased by irrelevant factors when reading LORs, emphasizing a need for letter reader training.     

The Impact of Physical Attractiveness in Evaluative Contexts

A repeated measures study assessing the impact of ratee sex, past performance, and attractiveness on performance evaluations was completed. Past performance was shown to account for nearly all of the explained variation in the dependent measures. The role of attractiveness is assessed to operate "on the margin" at best.     

The Influence of Source Physical Attractiveness on Advertising Effectiveness: A Functional Perspective1

High and low self-monitors heard either a physically attractive or unattractive source promote a new product with either strong or weak arguments. High self-monitors were persuaded by the physically attractive source only when she presented strong arguments. In contrast, low self-monitoring individuals were persuaded by the physically attractive source regardless of argument strength. Neither high nor low self-monitors were persuaded by the physically unattractive source, regardless of the quality of the arguments she offered. Cognitive response and recall data suggest that high self-monitors may have been systematically processing the physically attractive source's message and low self-monitors may have been more heuristically processing her message. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for advertising strategies.     

Behavioral Characteristics Of Children : Replication Studies With Foster Children

A replication study of rated behavioral characteristics of children is shown to yield stable factor structures for two groups of observers: foster mothers and social workers. Stability of cluster scores of ratings is established, as is agreement between the two classes of observers. Cluster scores are shown to differentiate between outpatient and foster children groups of subjects. It is also found that social workers consistently rate foster children in the direction of more pathology than do the foster mothers.     

Physical Attractiveness,Altruism and Cooperation in an Ultimatum Game

Explaining cooperative tendencies through an evolutionary lens has been problematic for theorists. Traditional explanations derive from theories of reciprocity, biological markets, and more recently via partner choice and sexual selection. The sexual selection hypothesis has been tested within game-theoretic frameworks gaining empirical support in explaining the evolution of altruism. Males have been found to be more altruistic towards attractive females. However, previous research has predominantly adopted a design where participants are not engaging with ‘real people’. Instead, participants make decisions when viewing images or hypothetical scenarios without visual cues. The present study aimed to investigate the sexual selection hypothesis using a face-to-face game theoretic framework. One hundred and thirty-eight participants played a 2-round ultimatum game with chocolate coins as the monetary incentive. We find, that physical attractiveness had no influence on generosity and cooperation when participants play a face-to-face ultimatum game. Instead, proposers were fair when allocating stakes, offering an average of half the endowment to responders. This study refutes the link between the sexual selection hypothesis and generosity when playing economic games with real people. Fairness appeared to drive generosity and cooperation.     

A Critical Test of the Waist-to-Hip-Ratio Hypothesis of Female Physical Attractiveness

Recent research has led to increasingly sophisticated conjectures as to the roles that genetic heritage, prior experience, and environmental context play in the production and maintenance of complex behaviors. The field of evolutionary psychology was born of such conjectures (Stanley, 1895) and now serves as a niche for a growing number of researchers (Buss, 1995; Kenrick, 1994). One of the more provocative lines of experimental research to emerge from this alembic derives from the linkage of evolutionary theories of human mate selection with definitions of physical attractiveness based on somatic characteristics that simultaneously signal attractiveness and predict reproductive potential (Buss, 1989). The waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) has been purportedly demonstrated to be a robust example of just such an invariant perceptual cue (e.g., Henss, 1995; Singh, 1993a). Here, we report that judgments of attractiveness and fecundity can be either unrelated or related, positively or negatively, to the WHR depending on waist size, hip size, and weight, and are thus inconsistent with the evolutionary argument that human physical attractiveness is fundamentally a sign of mate value.     

Screening Job Applicants: The Impact of Physical Attractiveness and Application Quality

The present study investigated the impact of physical attractiveness and résuméquality on the evaluation of job applicants in the screening phase of the selection process. One hundred and eighty participants were asked to imagine they were a recruiting officer and to screen an application for the position of graduate trainee manager. Participants read a job advertisement and one of two versions of a curriculum vitae, which differed in quality. Attached to the front page of each curriculum vitae was a passport-sized head-and-shoulders photograph of either an average or an attractive female. A control condition with no attached photograph was also included. Participants judged the likelihood with which they would offer an interview to the applicant, the quality of the application, and the likely starting salary they would offer the applicant. Results indicated that attractiveness had no impact when the quality of the application was high but that attractiveness was an advantage when the application was mediocre. When the résumé quality was average the attractive applicant was evaluated more positively than the control, no photograph, applicant; an attractive photograph boosted the evaluation of a mediocre application. Results are discussed in terms of discrimination and implications for the field of human resource management.     

Physical Attractiveness,Dating Behavior,and Implications for Women

The primary objective of this study was to determine which of two sociological theories of dating preference was more powerful in predicting women's actual dating frequency. The two theories tested were Waller's theory, which emphasizes physical attractiveness, and Blood's theory, which emphasizes personality. The present study supported Waller's theory. Discussion and implications for women and counselors are presented.     

Histrionic Personality Disorder, Physical Attractiveness, and Social Adjustment

Histrionic personality disorder (HPD) is the only DSM-IV personality disorder (PD) explicitly linked to a person's physical appearance. This study examined the HPD–attractiveness link in a mixed-sex sample of college students. Consistent with expectations, HPD women were rated higher in attractiveness than women with other PDs or no PD. However, a parallel HPD–attractiveness link was not found in men. Subsequent analyses indicated that, relative to less attractive HPD women, more attractive HPD women (a) had a more varied and supportive social network, (b) exhibited more negative behaviors in important relationships, and (c) showed greater use of immature defenses, and less reliance on image-distorting, self-sacrificing, and mature defenses. Similar attractiveness–defense relationships were found in HPD men, but parallel results did not emerge for men in the other two domains. Implications of these findings are discussed, and suggestions for future studies are offered.     

Physical Attractiveness Contrast Effect and the Moderating Influence of Self-Consciousness

Separate studies provided evidence of amoderating effect of public selfconsciousness (trait)and public self-awareness (state) on the physicalattractiveness contrast effect involving socialcomparison between the self and others. Generally, whenexposed to photographs of attractive women withidealized physiques, women's self-perceptions of theirown physical attractiveness, social physique anxiety, and social self-esteem were each negativelyaffected. However, these negative contrast effects weremost apparent among women with high publicself-consciousness (trait assessment, Study 1) or highpublic self-awareness (state inducement, Study 2).Implications of these findings are considered.