The Beauty Bias: Appearance Discrimination Used Across

Various SettingsBy: Debbie Gleason

The Good, the Bad, and the Grotesque: Why The Beauty Bias is Important

• Attractive: Heroes and Princesses Unattractive: Evil Characters

• What happens when the hero is unattractive?

Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1996

What is the Beauty Bias?•This stereotype refers to the tendency of thinking

that people who are physically attractive will also possess other desirable characteristics. -Traits include: being happier, smarter, having more friends, etc.- Can occur on a conscious or subconscious level which adds to why this is important to study

Foundations:• Evolution plays a role in the foundation of this

appearance bias. • Despite universally held perceptions of beauty in

both sexes, men tend to place significantly higher value on physical appearance in a partner than women do (Buss, 2003)

Foundations Continued…• Newborn babies prefer to look at attractive faces

- Alan Slater, 2000-Research suggests that face recognition is hardwired at birth rather than learned

Consequences of the Beauty Bias• Attractive children are punished less

severely: Marshuetz, 2005• The Beauty Bias is present in legal

contexts: Darby & Jeffers, 1988

Hypotheses *Participants will attribute positive

personality characteristics (morality) to more attractive individuals while attributing negative ones to less attractive individuals.

*Participants will most likely think the unattractive person is guilty

* Participants will find the necessity of a trial less important in determining guilt for the less attractive person

Participants:

The overall study consisted of 120 participants- 10 individuals: 5 Women and 5 Men- Convenience sample: found in library- Other variables were not accounted for- No compensation

Design• Two Group Between Subjects Design -Half received article with attractive picture -Half received article with unattractive picture -Important that participants do not find out about

both conditions (pictures) in order to avoid participant expectancy bias or carryover effects.

Materials and Procedure

MARQUETTE -- Marquette attorney James Nancarrow was named Tuesday as a suspect in an embezzlement case in Marquette.

He is charged with embezzling between $50,000 and $100,000.He was expected to be arraigned in district court Tuesday afternoon, but he did not show up, and the arraignment was

postponed until November 1.Nancarrow's attorney, Steve Polich, indicated that his client had

been hospitalized a Northstar Health System in Iron River.  His medical condition was not disclosed.

A hearing was held via video conference, however, with a visiting judge out of Chippewa County.  Nancarrow was not

present for the hearing.Bond was set at $100,000 cash assurety, and Nancarrow's

attorney indicated that his client had already provided $10,000 cash to the court.

Manipulation: Attractive vs. Unattractive

ResultsGuilt

Attractive: (M=2.93, SD=.97) Unattractive: (M=3.33, SD=.93)

Necessity of Trial Attractive: (M=3.12, SD=1.3) Unattractive: (M=3.53, SD=1.3)

Immorality Attractive: (M=2.50, SD=.98) Unattractive: (M=2.97, SD=1.23)

T Test

• Guilt t(118)=2.3 p<.050• Necessity of Trial t(118)=1.68 p<.050• Immorality t(118)=2.3 p<.050

Graph of Results:

Guilt Need for Trial Immorality0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

AttractiveUnnattractive

Discussion:• Our Predictions were correct• The unattractive person was rated higher

on having the negative traits: guilt and immorality

• Attractive person was rated lower on negative traits

Strengths & Limitations

• Brief Article allowed for participants to become more engaged and less likely to become bored

• Pilot testing the level of attractiveness for both conditions

• Experimenter Bias• Generalization• Presentation of Pictures (Background/Color)

Fixes:Experimenter Bias: Making the experiment a

double procedureGeneralization: If replicated, add more races to the

sample or at least add 2 white female pictures as a comparison

Presentation of Pictures: Try to find pictures with similar backgrounds or try making the pictures color instead of black/white

The Big Picture:• Affects each and every one of us - In addition, if the consequences of such a bias

are accurate then society is unjust • We must better understand the foundations and

possible causes in order to come closer to fixing issues that surround it - Marriage, Jobs, Grades, Friends

and Families

Sources:• Buss, David (2003) [1994] (hardcover).

The Evolution of Desire (second ed.). New York: Basic Books. pp. 57, 58, 60–63.

• Marshuetz, Christy, & Olsen, Ingrid R. (2005). Facial Attractiveness is Appraised in a Glance. Emotion, 4, 498-502

• Slater, Alan (2000). New Born Infants Prefer Attractive Faces. Infant Behavior and Development Volume 21.2, 345-354