Physical Attractiveness and the Attribution of Epilepsy

Abstract
One hundred college students (50 male and 50 female) identified the one person in a “lineup” whom they thought was an epileptic in a test of the hypothesis that they would be more likely to attribute neurological disorders to unattractive persons. Sixty-nine percent of the Ss selected an unattractive female from the female lineup, and 83 percent selected an unattractive male from the male lineup. This relationship was not affected by the amount of time available in which to make the decision, or by those personal characteristics usually associated with human tolerance (i.e., empathy, self-esteem, previous acquaintance with an epileptic).

This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit: