Stereotypic personality inferences following objective versus subjective judgments of beauty.

Abstract
Whether individuals'' use of the physical attractiveness stereotype would be affected by varying their perception of the causal locus of attractiveness judgments was studied. In 2 experiments, male subjects were led to believe either that their judgments of female targets'' attractiveness were caused by the women''s physical characteristics (objective judgments) or that these judgments were the result of their own personal preferences (subjective judgments). If the attractiveness stereotype rests on perceiver''s implicit assumption that beauty constitutes a reliable and unbiased criterion from which to infer other characteristics (personality traits), then stereotyping should be less extreme when attractiveness is seen as subjective. Although manipulation checks showed that objectivity-subjectivity was effectively manipulated, subjects in all conditions made personality inferences that were consistent with the attractiveness stereotype, i.e., significantly more favorable for attractive than for unattractive targets. Apparently, use of the attractiveness stereotype to generate personality predictions is covert and not amenable to influence by perceivers'' conscious attributions about the cause of their attractiveness judgments.

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