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The attractiveness-positivity link: Let's contextualize it.

Joana Mello1, Teresa Garcia-Marques1

  • 1a William James Center for Research, ISPA-Instituto Universitário , Lisboa.

The Journal of Social Psychology
|February 28, 2018
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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The "what is beautiful is good" heuristic links attractiveness to positivity. This study found attractiveness is implicitly linked to credibility, but explicitly linked to general positivity, suggesting attractiveness is a validity shortcut.

Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Cognitive Psychology

Background:

  • The heuristic "what is beautiful is good" suggests attractiveness is associated with positive qualities.
  • This association may stem from general positivity or specific credibility judgments of attractive individuals.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether attractiveness is associated with positivity, specifically concerning credibility, using explicit and implicit measures.
  • To differentiate between general positivity associations and credibility-specific associations with attractiveness.

Main Methods:

  • A study with 58 participants (N=58).
  • Employed an explicit measure (self-report) and an implicit measure (Stroop Task).
  • Assessed associations between facial attractiveness and valenced words related or unrelated to credibility.
Keywords:
Credibilityexplicitimplicitphysical attractivenesspositivity

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Implicit measures revealed an association between attractiveness and valenced words specifically when they related to credibility.
  • Explicit measures showed a general association between attractiveness and positivity, irrespective of credibility.
  • The implicit association effect was significant, while the explicit effect was not restricted to credibility.

Conclusions:

  • Attractiveness serves as an implicit shortcut for judging credibility.
  • Explicit judgments of attractiveness are broadly associated with general positivity, not solely credibility.
  • Findings contribute to understanding the cognitive mechanisms underlying attractiveness heuristics.