Physical Attractiveness Stereotypes Self Esteem Threat

1. Westfall, R. S., Millar, M. & Walsh, M. (2019). Effects of self-esteem threat on physical attractiveness stereotypes. Psychological Reports, 123(6), 2551-2561.

This study seeks to demonstrate how attributions of physical attractiveness are moderated by an individual’s self-esteem. The authors apply an episodic memory task. A total of participants 117 participants (48 men and 69 women) drawn from an institution of higher learning in southwestern U.S were recruited using an electronic-signup approach. The researchers hypothesized that individuals facing a threat on self-esteem were more reliant on stereotyping. To test this hypothesis, participants were assigned to either the high-esteem condition or the low self-esteem condition as the priming task and asked to remember and record any instance in the past where they had accomplished a goal of great relevance to them (with those assigned the low self-esteem condition being given the additional task of indicating an instance when they had failed to accomplished a crucial personal goal). The participants were then shown a slideshow of four (two attractive and two unattractive) human faces and asked to rate each picture for certain personality traits, including laziness, happiness, and competence. The results showed that participants in the low self-esteem condition ascribed significantly less positive traits to photos of the unattractive persons than those in the high self-esteem condition. The authors concluded that that self-esteem fluctuations have an influence on stereotypes founded on attractiveness and that persons who experience self-esteem threats rely even more on stereotyping. The study findings support a large number of existing studies that have found self-esteem to play a crucial role in the moderation of stereotypes founded on attractiveness. The article will come in handy in my attempts to study the factors that influence perceptions of attractiveness. It provides crucial insights on self-esteem as an influencer of human stereotypes and perceptions, thus providing an invaluable framework for analyzing how an individual’s perceptions about their self-worth influence their perceptions of others’ attractiveness.

Part I APA Reference citation

· Authors of the article (last names, first initials and middle initial if indicated)

· Year of publication

· Article title – review APA upper & lower case rules

· Journal issue and/or volume -italicize

· Page numbers

Part II

You will write a 5-8 sentence paragraph describing:

a. A brief statement of purpose of the study (Why was the study conducted?)

b. A brief description of the participants (i.e., age, race, ethnicity, gender, and/or other pertinent demographic information-Who participated in the study?)

c. A brief description of the method (What did the participants do?) [summarize what happened after the self-esteem priming task]

d. Indication of measures used to collect data (How did researchers collect data?)

e. A brief summary of the results in one or two sentences (What the researchers found)

f. A brief statement that indicates how the article contributed to a body of knowledge or its relevance (Answers question, so what?)

g. How is this article relevant to you thesis topic and project?

Min, S. W., Humphrey, S. E., Aime, F., Petrenko, O. V., Quade, M. J., & Fu, S. (2021). Dealing with new members: Team members’ reactions to newcomer’s attractiveness and sex. Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(3), 1-15.

This study seeks to explore the response of team members to not only the sex, but also the attractiveness of new persons incorporated into a group. In the present scenario, participants were drawn from a large U.S. institution of higher learning and consisted of undergraduate learners with a total of 289 students electing to participate in the study (161 male students and 128 female students). The authors utilized a multilevel experimental design to chart reactions to the sex and attractiveness of newcomers. The teams created were requested to provide a rating for members on a 7-point scale. The authors found that in response to the incorporation of female or male members who happen to be more or less attractive into the group, existing members of the group exhibit in the following behaviors; i.e. challenging, integration, and mimicry. The article indicates that the attractiveness and sex of persons influences the reactions of those they encounter in diverse settings such as in team engagements. The article will come in handy in my research as I seek to determine how physical factors such influence human perceptions about attractiveness. The study provides a basis for measuring the extent to which factors such as one’s own physical attractiveness and sex influence their perceptions about other people’s attractiveness or unattractiveness.

Part I APA Reference citation

· Authors of the article (last names, first initials and middle initial if indicated)

· Year of publication

· Article title

· Journal issue and/or volume- missing

· Page numbers -missing

Part II

You will write a 5-8 sentence paragraph describing:

a. A brief statement of purpose of the study (Why was the study conducted?)

b. A brief description of the participants (i.e., age, race, ethnicity, gender, and/or other pertinent demographic information-Who participated in the study?)

c. A brief description of the method (What did the participants do?)

d. Indication of measures used to collect data (How did researchers collect data?)

e. A brief summary of the results in one or two sentences (What the researchers found)

f. A brief statement that indicates how the article contributed to a body of knowledge or its relevance (Answers question, so what?)

g. How is this article relevant to you thesis topic and project?

2. Johnson, S. K., Podratz, K. E., Dipboye, R. L., & Gibbons, E. (2008). Physical attractiveness biases in ratings of employment suitability: Tracking down the “beauty is beastly” effect. Journal of Social Psychology, 150 (30), 301-318.

The authors in this study seek to determine scenarios under which beauty could be counterproductive for applicants who happen to be, or identify as female. They carried out two studies. The first study consisted of two groups of participants, a total of 28 female and 39 male psychology students who were involved in the process of job ratings; and a total of 21 female and 21 male students who were involved in the process of rating photographs. All participants were from a Southwestern private institution of higher learning with a mean age of 20.3 years. The second study consisted of 32 female and 25 male business students from a Colorado institution of higher learning. The study also included 8 participants who did not disclose their sex. In the first study, the first group of participants was expected to provide job ratings on the basis of appearance importance and sex-type; while the second group of participants were asked to rate photographs on suitability for employment and attractiveness. In the second study, all 57 participants took part in rating the photographs on a scale of 1 to 7 (7- extremely suitable and 1 – not suitable at all) on how they perceived the pictured person’s ability to handle four categories of jobs. A total of 26 occupations were characterized into four major groups based on whether they were considered masculine or feminine sex-typed.

The study concluded that “attractiveness can be detrimental for women applying for masculine sex-typed jobs for which physical appearance is perceived as unimportant” (p. 301). In basic terms, the present study succeeds in demonstrating two key effects, i.e. ‘beauty is beastly’ and ‘what is beautiful is good’ – and how the said concepts are implicated in real-life hiring decisions. The article will be instrumental as I seek to demonstrate that although physical attractiveness does indeed influence how persons are perceived, there are exceptions (i.e. those scenarios where physical attractiveness could be detrimental).

Part I APA Reference citation

· Authors of the article (last names, first initials and middle initial if indicated) – insert space between authors’ first and second initials

· Year of publication

· Article title

· Journal issue and/or volume -italicize

· Page numbers

Part II

You will write a 5-8 sentence paragraph describing:

a. A brief statement of purpose of the study (Why was the study conducted?)

b. A brief description of the participants (i.e., age, race, ethnicity, gender, and/or other pertinent demographic information-Who participated in the study?)

c. A brief description of the method (What did the participants do?)

d. Indication of measures used to collect data (How did researchers collect data?)

e. A brief summary of the results in one or two sentences (What the researchers found)

f. A brief statement that indicates how the article contributed to a body of knowledge or its relevance (Answers question, so what?)

g. How is this article relevant to you thesis topic and project?

3. Groyecka, A., Pisanski, K., Sorokowska, A., Havlicek, J., Karwowski, M., Puts, D., Roberts, S. C., & Sorokowski, P. (2017). Attractiveness is multimodal: beauty is also in the nose and ear of the beholder. Frontiers in Psychology, 8(778), 11-15.