A Better Personality Can Fix Your Ugly Face, Study
Christopher Philip
Chinese researchers have found that people’s perceived attractiveness can be manipulated by positive personality traits.
The study consisted of 120 adult males and females split into three groups. These groups were then asked to rate 60 photographs of Chinese women with a neutral facial expression.
Three weeks later, the three groups were shown the same pictures except this time, they were given a personality description to go alongside. One set of people were given a positive description while the other a negative description. Words were included such as honesty and dishonesty. The third group of people was simply re-shown the images without a personality description.
When no personality description was provided, ratings remained consistent. However, when the images were accompanied by positive descriptions, the photographs received higher ratings in terms of facial attractiveness. The reverse was true for the photographs with the negative descriptions where they were rated as less facially attractive.
Therefore, while we normally ascribe positive personality traits to attractive individuals, people also seem to attribute attractiveness to positive personality traits.
Image Credit: Umberto Salvagnin
Resources
Zhang, Yan; Fanchang Kong; Yanli Zhong and Hui Kou. Personality manipulations: Do they modulate facial attractiveness ratings? Personality and Individual Differences. 2019. 70: 80-84.