Maxims or myths of beauty? A meta-analytic and theoretical review

“Perceived attractiveness has been associated with assessments of moral goodness, aka the “Beauty-Is-Good” stereotype [67], trustworthiness [68], and intelligence [69].”

“[3] demonstrated that within and between cultures, raters strongly agree about who is and who is not attractive.”

“Consistent with such views, meta-analyses (Jackson, Hunter &Hodge, 1995; Langlois et al., 2000) show that there is a small but significantly positive correlation between intelligence andphysical attractiveness.”

“Nonverbal behavior”

“Meta–analyses of this literature indicate that there is at least some truth in these perceptions, particularly with regard to social competence (Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo, 1991; Langlois et al., 2000).”

“The overarching assumption in human mating research is that individuals who possess certain traits or qualities (e.g., good looks) will be more or less successful at mating (e.g., Buss & Barnes, 1986; Buss & Schmitt, 1993; Langlois et al., 2000).”

“Given that greater physical attractiveness is also associated with more positive friendship, professional and even familial relationships (Langlois et al., 2000), these results are still consistent with a sociometer perspective.”

“In fact, in their meta-analysis, Langlois et al. (2000) had to collapse video and in situ studies into a single category because there were so few in situ studies on record.”

“In addition, adults tend to prefer attractive faces and be more inclined to help strangers with more attractive faces than those who are less attractive (for reviews, see Langlois et al., 2000; Rhodes, 2006).”

“claims to the contrary, see [19]), and that attractiveness has a social effect on the way we judge and treat others [11].”

“Defining what is beautiful for women and attempting to produce a ‘norm’ for attractiveness is unlikely, due to the numerous cultural interpretations of female beauty (Langois, Kalakanis, Rubenstein, Larson, Hallam, & Smoot, 2000 ).”

“…have theorized that appearance can enhance the acquisition of social skills throughout life because good-looking 466 Rosenblat The Beauty Premium people often receive more positive attention from parents, caregivers, teachers, and coworkers (Hatfield and Sprecher 1986; Langlois et al. 2000).”

“Socialization theories suggest appearance and body esteem significantly influence development and social functioning (Langlois & Kalakanis, 2000).”

“If social power is defined as the ability to effect one’s will in society, then more attractive women have more power than less attractive women because people of all ages, including infants, prefer attractive people t o unattractive people (Langlois et al., 2000).”

“Langlois et al. (2000) calculated the reliability of attractiveness ratings for 67 studies using adults from the same culture.”

“Attractive children and adults are considered to be healthier and fitter, to have greater social appeal, to have higher academic competence, and to be more confident and better adjusted than their less attractive counterparts (Landy and Sigall 1974; Langlois et al. 2000; Mobius and Rosenblat 2006).”

“Stereotyping based on physical attractiveness is known in the social psychology literature as the 'beauty is good' stereotype and continues throughout adulthood (Dion, Berscheid & Walster, 1972; Eagly et al. , 1991; Langlois et al. , 2000).”

“…meta-analysis suggests a weak effect size of general facial attractiveness on mental (0.16, 95% CI ¼ 0.09/0.23 from 19 studies) and physical health (0.38, 0.24/0.53 from five studies; Langlois et al., 2000), and facial asymmetry is perceived as healthy (Jones et al., 2001; Rhodes et al., 2001).”

“Two meta-analyses have found a relationship, albeit weak, between attractiveness and health (Feingold 1992; Langlois et al 2000).”

“Similarly, people who are competitively disadvantaged because of embodied traits are rarely only disadvantaged in a single domain: Various facets of embodied capital—attractiveness, intelligence, physical ability, and strength—tend to be at least somewhat associated with each other, and with such key outcomes as incom…”

“…explanation could be that goodlooking people are more likely to perceive the world as a just place, since they are treated better than others (Langlois et al. 2000), achieve higher status (Anderson et al. 2001) and are happier (Hamermesh and Abrevaya, 2013) – and a frequent reason for people…”

“Further information can be found in the appended reference list [15–20].”

“This is because cultural norms, stereotypes and expectations about attractiveness are likely to influence both the judgement and the treatment of attractive versus unattractive individuals [4].”

“Consistent with findings in a large literature in cognitive psychology, attractiveness ratings by independent observers appear to be positively correlated (for surveys of this literature, see Langlois et al. 2000, Etcoff 1999, and Buss 2003).”

“Psychological research demonstrates an “attractiveness halo” whereby people with more attractive faces are judged more positively on a range of dimensions (Berscheid & Walster, 1974 ; Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo, 1991 ; Feingold, 1992 ) as well as given preferential treatment in many life domains (Langlois et a…”

“Indeed, the review of the literature on the stereotype reveals that attractive people are more popular with the opposite sex, less lonely, less socially anxious, and more socially skilled than less-attractive people (for a meta-analytic review, see Feingold, 1992; Langlois et al., 2000).”

“Perhaps partially because physically attractive individuals are treated preferentially, they enjoy improved school performance, greater occupational success, and higher earnings (Clifford and Walster 1973; Hamermesh and Biddle 1994; Haskins and Ransford 1999; Jackson, Hunter, and Hodge 1995; Langlois et al. 2000; Rose…”

“This study and the aforementioned results all demonstrate that the attractiveness stereotype, which has been established in the real world (Langlois et al., 2000), also functions in the virtual world with stimuli that portray attractive individuals as having more positive qualities than…”

“Daily experience (and an extensive literature) attests that good-looking people are more popular with their peers and are treated more favorably by others than their unattractive counterparts (Langlois et al., 2000).”

“Even though people are often not aware of its impact, attractiveness affects our social perception and interactions in various ways (Brand, Bonatsos, D’Orazio, & DeShong, 2012; Dion, Walster, & Berscheid, 1972; Langlois et al., 2000; Tsukiura & Cabeza, 2011).”

“More generally, negative halo effects explain ageism as arising because older people are perceived as generally unattractive, and are therefore seen as having negative traits and abilities (Langlois et al., 2000).”

“Importantly, attractiveness is a socially important facial feature (Langlois et al., 2000); judgments of facial attractiveness are fast, effortless and consistent across people (Willis and Todorov, 2006).”

“Moreover, positive associations exist between the perceived attractiveness of a person and the favorable traits, such as honesty and trustworthiness, others judge that person to have (Langlois et al. 2000).”

“Consistent with findings that people within and across cultures show very high levels of agreement about who is attractive (Langlois et al., 2000) , the reliability of our coders was quite high (coefficient ␣ ϭ .90 for ratings of husbands, and coefficient ␣ ϭ .93 for wives).”

“Nor is it to gainsay research that has identified physical characteristics such as facial symmetry and facial averageness, which seem to have cross-cultural relevance asmarkers of perceived attractiveness among adults (see Langlois et al. 2000; Todorov et al. 2015).”

“While there appears limited accuracy in terms of positive personality attribution, there are studies that suggest attractive individuals are more sociable than their nonattractive peers (see Langlois et al., 2000, for a meta-analytic review).”

“Taking these findings together, it could be argued that subjects pay more attention to attractive than to less attractive people (Langlois et al., 2000; COGNITION AND EMOTION, 2014, 28 (2) 307 Maner et al., 2003) and thus are more sensitive towards them.”

“Even though a great deal of evidence shows that attractive people, compared to less attractive ones, are generally treated more favorably and are better adjusted (Langlois et al., 2000), these benefits of attractiveness did not extend to our groups of professional fashion models.”

“Likewise, individuals tend to think that physically attractive members of the opposite sex are more intelligent, more kind, more sociable and make better partners than physically less attractive ones (e.g., Langlois et al., 2000).”

“People readily agree on who is attractive and who is not (Langlois et al. 2000), and judgments are often consistent across people from different cultures and ethnicities (Jones et al.”

“Cerebral Cortex April 2012;22:951--961 doi:10.1093/cercor/bhr166 Advance Access publication July 1, 2011”

“It has repeatedly been shown that facial appearance strongly affects various social interactions [1,2].”

“So how true are these stereotypes? Research has demonstrated that attractive people are somewhat more relaxed and outgoing and have more social finesse than less attractive individuals [2,5].”

“…known to affect many types of psychological processes (Buchanan et al., 1992), although broad similarities between judgments of facial attractiveness by children and by adults are generally found (Cross and Cross, 1971; Cavior and Lombardi, 1973; Dion, 1973; for review see Langlois et al., 2000).”

“Langlois et al., (2000) argue that such common maxims may be myths, and that both socialization theory and fitness-related evolutionary theory suggest that attractiveness influences development and interaction; their findings from 11 meta-analyses support this view.”

“The tendency for faces higher in attractiveness to be rated as more likeable and competent as well as less dangerous and reserved is consistent with the well-documented attractiveness halo effecf(e.g., Eagly et al., 1991; Feingold, 1992; Langlois et al., 2000).”

“Social psychologists have identified a ‘‘halo’’ effect of physical attractiveness leading to inferences that the attractive are more competent, confident, and socially skilled than the unattractive (Eagly et al. 1991; Hatfield and Sprecher 1986; Langlois et al. 2000; Feingold 1992).”

“In this manner, we integrate literature on personality trait inferences based on physical appearance (Dion et al. 1972; Langlois et al. 2000) with research on moral trait inferences based on specific behaviors (Reeder and Brewer 1979; Skowronski and Carlston 1979) to understand how physical…”

“Accordingly physical attractiveness is perceived to be associated with intelligence (Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo, 1991; Feingold, 1992), self-sufficiency (Dion & Berscheid, 1974), social competence (Eagly et al., 1991; Langlois et al., 2000), prosociality (Dion, 1973; Langlois & Styczynski, 1979), and friendlin…”

“”[9] Orofacial cleft, due to its particular location in the orofacial region, can be particularly distressing; and parents of the affected children are usually ashamed/uncomfortable with bringing out their children in public.”

“Compared with less attractive individuals, attractive people receive more attention, cooperation, and help from their peers (Langlois et al., 2000).”

“For example, although attractiveness should not influence a politician's ability, ratings of attractiveness have frequently been tied to election outcomes (e.g., Berggren, Jordahl, & Poutvaara, 2010; King & Leigh, 2009; Langlois et al., 2000).”

“Attractive people are regarded as more socially competent, dominant, better adjusted, more capable in school and work, and receive greater rewards and lesser punishments (for meta-analyses, see Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo, 1991; Langlois et al., 2000).”

“The universal nature of human facial preferences (Langlois et al., 2000) suggests”

“The existing work indicates that a person’s physical attractiveness influences a wide variety of personal experiences, including mating opportunities and job opportunities (e.g., Buss, 1989; Langlois et al. 2000).”

“Two well-documented phenomena in person perception are the attractiveness halo effect, whereby more positive traits are ascribed to more attractive individuals of many ages and races (Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo, 1991; Langlois et al., 2000; Dion, 2002), and the babyface overgeneralization effect, whereby more…”