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. 2006 Apr;24(2):187-206.
doi: 10.1521/soco.2006.24.2.187.

Stereotype Directionality and Attractiveness Stereotyping: Is Beauty Good or is Ugly Bad?

Angela M Griffin  1 , Judith H Langlois
Affiliations

Stereotype Directionality and Attractiveness Stereotyping: Is Beauty Good or is Ugly Bad?

Angela M Griffin et al. Soc Cogn. 2006 Apr.

Abstract

Dion, Berscheid, and Walster (1972), in their seminal article, labeled the attribution of positive characteristics to attractive people the "beauty-is-good" stereotype. The stereotyping literature since then provides extensive evidence for the differential judgment and treatment of attractive versus unattractive people, but does not indicate whether it is an advantage to be attractive or a disadvantage to be unattractive. Two studies investigated the direction of attractiveness stereotyping by comparing judgments of positive and negative attributes for medium vs. low and medium vs. high attractive faces. Taken together, results for adults (Experiment 1) and children (Experiment 2) suggest that most often, unattractiveness is a disadvantage, consistent with negativity bias (e.g., Rozin & Royzman, 2001) but contrary to the "beauty-is-good" aphorism.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Adults’ mean ratings for low, medium, and high attractive faces.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Children’s mean ratings for low, medium, and high attractive faces.
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