Beautiful people
Last week the Kingdom played host to the Miss Universe Pageant, in which eighty-nine stunning female contestants vied for cash, prizes, and the coveted title of Miss Universe. Despite longstanding objections and criticisms by some feminists and conservative traditionalists, beauty contests like the Miss Universe Pageant continue to attract widespread public attention and support in our societies.
In celebrating physical beauty through our beauty contests, we persist in idealizing the beauty of glamorous, smiling, shapely women dressed in revealing swimsuits, and lavish evening gowns. In apparent contrast, popular maxims, such as “beauty is only skin deep,” and “you can’t judge a book by its cover” seem to promote the creed that beauty is not, or should not be a significant factor in social interactions.
A considerable body of psychological research suggests that the attraction we experience toward beautiful people is universal, and possibly innate to humans. A remarkable degree of consensus exists both within, and across cultures, as to what qualifies as human beauty. Further, our human preference for beautiful people appears well established, even before we are influenced by socialization from parents, peers, and the media. Infants as young as three months of age already demonstrate a preference for attractive faces over unattractive ones.
Research also reveals the existence of a bias, or stereotype that operates regarding those we consider beautiful. We generally expect attractive people to possess desirable personal qualities, such as intelligence, success, and happiness. Conversely, we assume that unattractive people possess undesirable traits, such as deviousness and untrustworthiness.
One of the most fascinating research studies on beauty suggests that our interactions with a beautiful person can have the effect of a self-fulfilling prophecy, influencing that person to behave more appealingly. Social psychologists Mark Snyder, Elizabeth Decker Tanke, and Ellen Berscheid produced surprising evidence of such a phenomenon in a clever 1977 experiment.
Male subjects in the experiment were told that they were taking part in an investigation of "how people become acquainted with each other." Each was shown a photograph and given biographical data on a female partner. They were then provided an opportunity to become acquainted with the partner through telephone conversations. Half of the males received a picture of a very attractive woman, while the other half received a picture of a relatively unattractive woman. The woman on the phone, however, was the same for both groups.
When the conversations were concluded, the men were asked to rate the woman with whom they had spoken on a number of personality characteristics, such as poise, sense of humor, and social adeptness. Psychology students who had not seen the pictures, but were allowed to hear only the woman’s side of the conversation were, likewise, asked to provide ratings of the woman.
As expected, the men who thought they were speaking to an attractive woman rated her higher on poise, humor, and social adeptness, than men who thought they were speaking to a relatively unattractive woman. Surprisingly, however, the unbiased student raters who had not seen the photos, but had heard only the woman’s side of the conversation, provided ratings that were consistent with those of the men who had seen the photos. Thus, when the woman had a conversation with men who believed her to be beautiful, she was rated as more animated, more confident, more attractive, and warmer than when she spoke to a man who believed her to be less beautiful.
This investigation provides evidence of a positive stereotype for beautiful people, which includes positive personality, intelligence and behavioral qualities, and a negative stereotype for plain or unattractive people. It further suggests that our stereotypes can influence us to behave toward that person in such a way as to elicit those positive or negative behavioral traits we assume the person to possess. Thus, the stereotype that beautiful people possess favorable traits, while less than beautiful people possess unfavorable traits, appears to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In celebrating physical beauty through our beauty contests, we persist in idealizing the beauty of glamorous, smiling, shapely women dressed in revealing swimsuits, and lavish evening gowns. In apparent contrast, popular maxims, such as “beauty is only skin deep,” and “you can’t judge a book by its cover” seem to promote the creed that beauty is not, or should not be a significant factor in social interactions.
A considerable body of psychological research suggests that the attraction we experience toward beautiful people is universal, and possibly innate to humans. A remarkable degree of consensus exists both within, and across cultures, as to what qualifies as human beauty. Further, our human preference for beautiful people appears well established, even before we are influenced by socialization from parents, peers, and the media. Infants as young as three months of age already demonstrate a preference for attractive faces over unattractive ones.
Research also reveals the existence of a bias, or stereotype that operates regarding those we consider beautiful. We generally expect attractive people to possess desirable personal qualities, such as intelligence, success, and happiness. Conversely, we assume that unattractive people possess undesirable traits, such as deviousness and untrustworthiness.
One of the most fascinating research studies on beauty suggests that our interactions with a beautiful person can have the effect of a self-fulfilling prophecy, influencing that person to behave more appealingly. Social psychologists Mark Snyder, Elizabeth Decker Tanke, and Ellen Berscheid produced surprising evidence of such a phenomenon in a clever 1977 experiment.
Male subjects in the experiment were told that they were taking part in an investigation of "how people become acquainted with each other." Each was shown a photograph and given biographical data on a female partner. They were then provided an opportunity to become acquainted with the partner through telephone conversations. Half of the males received a picture of a very attractive woman, while the other half received a picture of a relatively unattractive woman. The woman on the phone, however, was the same for both groups.
When the conversations were concluded, the men were asked to rate the woman with whom they had spoken on a number of personality characteristics, such as poise, sense of humor, and social adeptness. Psychology students who had not seen the pictures, but were allowed to hear only the woman’s side of the conversation were, likewise, asked to provide ratings of the woman.
As expected, the men who thought they were speaking to an attractive woman rated her higher on poise, humor, and social adeptness, than men who thought they were speaking to a relatively unattractive woman. Surprisingly, however, the unbiased student raters who had not seen the photos, but had heard only the woman’s side of the conversation, provided ratings that were consistent with those of the men who had seen the photos. Thus, when the woman had a conversation with men who believed her to be beautiful, she was rated as more animated, more confident, more attractive, and warmer than when she spoke to a man who believed her to be less beautiful.
This investigation provides evidence of a positive stereotype for beautiful people, which includes positive personality, intelligence and behavioral qualities, and a negative stereotype for plain or unattractive people. It further suggests that our stereotypes can influence us to behave toward that person in such a way as to elicit those positive or negative behavioral traits we assume the person to possess. Thus, the stereotype that beautiful people possess favorable traits, while less than beautiful people possess unfavorable traits, appears to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
posted by Michael | Tuesday, June 07, 2005
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