The goal of this project is to reproduce research on the attractiveness halo effect “What is beautiful is good” (Dion et al., 1972). In particular, I aim to replicate the findings that there is an association between the perceived facial attractiveness and other social attributes in individual perception (Dion et al., 1972; Eagly et al., 1991; Langlois et al., 2000; Lemay et al., 2010). All attributes will be judged by female raters and only female stimuli are used for availability and convenience reasons.
While prior research has predominantly investigated whether attractive faces are perceived more positively, the aim of this project is to explore whether unattractive faces are perceived more negatively (Griffin & Langlois, 2006; Lan et al., 2021; Putz et al., 2018). Therefore the variables used in this present study are negative variations of previously used variables in “What is Beautiful is Good” research. The variables social competence (Dion et al., 1972; Eagly et al., 1991), intellectual competence (Batres & Shiramizu, 2023; Brandhorst et al., 2022; Eagly et al., 1991; Feingold, 1992; Griffin & Langlois, 2006), and emotional stability (Albright et al., 1997; Batres & Shiramizu, 2023; Tartaglia & Rollero, 2015) have shown robust positive correlations with attractiveness in a wide array of studies. Consequently, these attributes are both positively (social competence, intellectual competence, and emotional stability) and negatively framed (social incompetence, intellectual incompetence, and emotional instability). The mean correlations of positive and negative items will be compared to investigate whether the correlations between positive attributes and attractiveness differs from the correlation between negative attributes and unattractiveness.
Additionally, the research will explore potential variations in person perception based on the cultural backgrounds of the faces. Female faces from an individualistic culture (Germany) and a collectivistic culture (Brazil) are included in the analysis. Female German observers judge both groups of faces according to the attributes. The question is whether there are differential judgements between their own and another culture. If this were to be the case, the existence of an ingroup bias is to be discussed (Allport, 1954; Brewer, 1999). Empirical evidence indicates that attractiveness evaluations are consistent cross-culturally (Albright et al., 1997; Batres & Shiramizu, 2023; Kordsmeyer et al., 2022).
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