Follow BB:
The Beauty of First Impressions
Oscar Wilde once claimed, “It is better to be beautiful than good, but it is better to be good than ugly.” This may be most true when meeting new people. Researchers in British Columbia suggest that beautiful people make better first impressions.
In the study, people more accurately described and had a more positive impression of attractive people than those who were less attractive. Likely, people pay attention to other people whom they believe are more attractive. This previously reported “halo effect” is a phenomenon in which people who are physically attractive are also thought to be smarter, friendlier and more competent than less attractive peers.
The current study, published Psychological Science involved 75 men and women who were instructed to have three-minute one-on-one conversations with people they had never met before. Afterwards, the participants rated each other on their level of attractiveness, as well as five personality traits: openness, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and neuroticism. Each participant also rated him- or herself on the same characteristics.
Overall, participants reported a generally more favorable impression of people they ranked as more attractive; that is, attractive people were seen as having more desirable personality profiles than less attractive people. Additionally, participants more accurately described the personality characteristics of the more attractive subjects, compared to less attractive counterparts; specifically, attractive people were viewed more in line with their self-reported characteristics than less attractive people.
The authors believe that this tendency towards beautiful first impressions is owed to people paying closer attention to others they find attractive. Many factors, even gender and brain mechanisms, motivate first impressions, and people’s desire to bond with beautiful people influences the attention they pay to those they find attractive. This may be due to romantic interest, a wish to be friends, curiosity, or a desire to elevate one’s own social standing. And increased motivation leads to more accurate first impressions.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the study only evaluates the subjective reports of attractiveness and personality characteristics. By judging others’ perceptions compared to what beautiful people believed about themselves only means that beautiful people are better at conveying what they want others to believe about them. Attractiveness is a complex trait that cannot be accurately defined in three minutes. But, as the authors report, people do judge books by their covers, and books with attractive covers are read more closely than other books.
References
Biesanz JC, & Human LJ (2010). The cost of forming more accurate impressions: accuracy-motivated perceivers see the personality of others more distinctively but less normatively than perceivers without an explicit goal. Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS, 21 (4), 589-94 PMID: 20424106
Chan, M., Rogers, K., Parisotto, K., & Biesanz, J. (2010). Forming first impressions: The role of gender and normative accuracy in personality perception Journal of Research in Personality DOI: 10.1016/j.jrp.2010.11.001
Lemay EP Jr, Clark MS, & Greenberg A (2010). What is beautiful is good because what is beautiful is desired: physical attractiveness stereotyping as projection of interpersonal goals. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 36 (3), 339-53 PMID: 20179314
Lorenzo GL, Biesanz JC, & Human LJ (2010). What is beautiful is good and more accurately understood: physical attractiveness and accuracy in first impressions of personality. Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS, 21 (12), 1777-82 PMID: 21051521
Schiller D, Freeman JB, Mitchell JP, Uleman JS, & Phelps EA (2009). A neural mechanism of first impressions. Nature neuroscience, 12 (4), 508-14 PMID: 19270690
Jennifer Gibson, PharmD
Jennifer Gibson, PharmD, is a practicing clinical pharmacist and medical writer/editor with experience in researching and preparing scientific publications, developing public relations materials, creating educational resources and presentations, and editing technical manuscripts. She is the owner of Excalibur Scientific, LLC.8 Responses
-
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Neuromodulation News, Brain Blogger and Élément Santé, Jen @HypnosisWtLoss. Jen @HypnosisWtLoss said: The Beauty of First Impressions: Oscar Wilde once claimed, “It is better to be beautiful than good, but it is be… http://brainblogger.com/2011/01/24/the-beauty-of-first-impressions/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_term=hypnosis+weight+loss&utm_content=diet+hypnosis [...]
-
[...] might come no suprise that beauty counts. In the study, people more accurately described and had a more positive impression of attractive [...]
-
[...] The Beauty of First Impressions – via Brain Blogger – n the study, people more accurately described and had a more positive impression of attractive people than those who were less attractive. Likely, people pay attention to other people whom they believe are more attractive. This previously reported “halo effect” is a phenomenon in which people who are physically attractive are also thought to be smarter, friendlier and more competent than less attractive peers. The current study, published Psychological Science involved 75 men and women who were instructed to have three-minute one-on-one conversations with people they had never met before. Afterwards, the participants rated each other on their level of attractiveness, as well as five personality traits: openness, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and neuroticism. Each participant also rated him- or herself on the same characteristics. [...]
Leave a Reply
Popular Posts
Future Posts
- Caffeine Increases Memory for Humans and Honeybees
- Is the Perception of Orientation Affected By Language?
- Electronic Devices Are Unlikely To Cause Cancer
- Personal Experience in Labeling Borderline Personality Disorder
- Change on the Horizon for Psychiatric Medicine
Latest Posts
Comments
- Louis Vuitton Outlet Portland Oregon: Genuine Louis Vuitton Online O
- Max Sebring: My cousin is in the Army and h
- ergonomics bike seats: We are a group of volunteers a
- cars: It should be fun to buy a new
- Teapigs.Co.Uk: Howdy, merely became aware of
I think there is more at work than simple more or less attractiveness. We know that people who consider themselves less than attractive are often also quite self conscious about it. They are more apt to be defensive, and communication is often not as easy going. I wonder what the result would be if some time was spent beforehand with the less attractive ones on self esteem etc.
I believe you are right. I think confidence and extraversion is an more important factor than looks, in this situation. People with great people skills, no social anxiety and with high self-esteem will naturally be regarded as more attractive, intelligent and friendlier.
It doesn’t really matter much what the person looks like though. People were supposed to rate the attractiveness of each other which means someone could look like a supermodel and not be found attractive by participants and vice versa. As was stated, attractiveness is the eye of the beholder.
Also, if you find someone attractive you tend to spend more attention on them than someone you don’t find as attractive. They could both be saying the same exact thing and the person you find more attractive will be the person you keep more attention on.
What a beautiful article! I understand the importance of being attractive, thats the main reason why people spend of millions of dollars in health care & beauty care products they are rated as the most wanted products in the consumer industry.
Being attractive is directly proportional to one’s confidence level.
Don’t get attractiveness wrong though, as being attractive does not necessarily imply being ‘good-looking’. Evolution has caused men and women to value completely different things;
You’ll find men indeed looking more for signs of physical beauty in a woman, indicating youthfulness and fertility.
On the other hand, women will be more suspectible to other characteristics, such as dominance, social status and confidence. This does not have to be related with good looks at all.
Interesting read btw!