Physical Attractiveness and Judgments of Psychopathology

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Two separate experiments tested the hypothesis that naive judges would be more likely to attribute psychological disturbance to unattractive than to attractive target persons. In the first experiment, 58 male and female college students estimated possible disturbance of target persons, some of whom were alleged to have been either (a) confined to a psychiatric hospital or (b) in counseling. In the second experiment (n = 40) half of the sample was warned that attractiveness was unimportant and to use other cues. Results of both experiments supported the expectation that psychological disturbance is more likely to be attributed to unattractive target persons. In addition, the alleged seriousness of the problem, the warning that attractiveness is unimportant, and three subject variables failed to mediate the effect.

This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit: