Social scientists have given relatively scant attention to the association between attractiveness and longevity. But attractiveness may convey underlying health, and it systematically structures ...critical social stratification processes. We evaluated these issues using the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS, N = 8386), a survey of Wisconsin high school graduates from 1957 which provided large samples of women and men observed until their death (or through their early 80s). In doing so, we utilized a meticulously constructed measure of facial attractiveness based on the independent ratings of high-school yearbook photographs. We used linked death information from the National Death Index-plus through 2022 and Cox proportional hazard models as well as standard life-table techniques. We found that the least attractive rated sextile of the sample had significantly higher hazards of mortality (HR: 1.168, p < 0.01) compared to the middle rated four sextiles of attractiveness. This finding remained robust to the inclusion of covariates describing high-school achievement, intelligence, family background, earnings as adults, as well as mental and physical health in middle adulthood. We also found that different specifications of the attractiveness measure consistently indicated no significant differences in the mortality hazard between highly attractive and average-looking people. Using life-table techniques, we next illustrated that among women in the least attractive sextile, at age 20 their life expectancy was nearly 2 years less than others’; among men in the least attractive sextile, it was nearly 1 year less at age 20.
•Little is known about the association between facial attractiveness and longevity.•We analyze how attractiveness based on yearbook pictures is linked to longevity.•We find that the least attractive 1/6th had a significantly Higher Hazard of mortality.•The least attractive 1/6th of women lived almost 2 years less than others at 20.•The least attractive 1/6th of men lived almost 1 years less than others at 20.
Physische Attraktivität und Lebenszufriedenheit Rosar, Ulrich; Althans, Roman; Krause, Johannes
Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie,
12/2023, Letnik:
75, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Ziel dieses Beitrags ist es, den Einfluss der physischen Attraktivität auf unterschiedliche Aspekte der Lebenszufriedenheit empirisch zu überprüfen. Dies wird auf Basis theoretischer Überlegungen mit ...den Daten aus dem Kölner Gymnasiasten-Panel geprüft, das die private sowie die berufliche Situation der Befragten im modalen Alter von 30, 43, 56 und 66 Jahren abbildet. Für einen Teil der Befragten wurde im Nachhinein die physische Attraktivität im Alter von 16 Jahren ermittelt. Unter Kontrolle des Berufsprestiges, des Erwerbsstatus, der Wochenarbeitszeit und dem Vorliegen von Arbeitslosigkeit wird ein signifikanter Attraktivitätseffekt auf die berufliche Lebenszufriedenheit im Alter von 30 Jahren nachgewiesen. In Bezug auf die private Lebenszufriedenheit findet sich kein substanzieller Attraktivitätseffekt. Nichtsdestotrotz besitzt die physische Attraktivität im Alter von 16 Jahren einen signifikanten Effekt auf die allgemeine Lebenszufriedenheit im Alter von 30 und 43 Jahren unter Kontrolle der privaten und beruflichen Lebenszufriedenheit. Der Effekt im Alter von 43 Jahren bleibt auch dann bestehen, wenn für die allgemeine Lebenszufriedenheit im Alter von 30 Jahren kontrolliert wird. Mit dieser Untersuchung wird also ein langfristiger Effekt der äußeren Erscheinung auf verschiedene Aspekte der Lebenszufriedenheit nachgewiesen. Insbesondere der Einfluss auf die allgemeine Lebenszufriedenheit sei herausgestellt. Hier besitzt die physische Attraktivität einen fast drei Dekaden währenden, die Zufriedenheit steigernden Nachhall.
Although widely cited as strong evidence that sexual selection has shaped human facial-attractiveness judgments, findings suggesting that women’s preferences for masculine characteristics in men’s ...faces are related to women’s hormonal status are equivocal and controversial. Consequently, we conducted the largest-ever longitudinal study of the hormonal correlates of women’s preferences for facial masculinity (N = 584). Analyses showed no compelling evidence that preferences for facial masculinity were related to changes in women’s salivary steroid hormone levels. Furthermore, both within-subjects and between-subjects comparisons showed no evidence that oral contraceptive use decreased masculinity preferences. However, women generally preferred masculinized over feminized versions of men’s faces, particularly when assessing men’s attractiveness for short-term, rather than long-term, relationships. Our results do not support the hypothesized link between women’s preferences for facial masculinity and their hormonal status.
Bowing is an act, commonly used in Japan, involving lowering the head and bending the upper body towards another person as a greeting. Studies have shown that the bowing action increases the ...subjective attractiveness of the face. Specifically, the attractiveness rating of a bowing 3D computer graphics model was found to be higher than those of the bending‐backward or the standing‐still conditions. However, previous studies did not manipulate the duration of the bowing action. This study examined whether the effect of bowing on the facial impression increases as the duration of bowing actions (the bending motion, the bent posture, and the return motion) was prolonged. In Experiment 1, we compared two durations of the bent posture at the peak point under the bending‐forward condition (0 or 1.5 s). In Experiment 2, we also manipulated the effect of the bowing speed (0.5 or 1 s). The results indicated that the effect of bowing on the rating scores of subjective attractiveness increased as the duration of bowing actions was prolonged. Moreover, an identical pattern of results was obtained in judgments of politeness and submissiveness. These findings suggest that the bowing effect is closely related to the cognitive schema of politeness and submissiveness, and thus the formal bowing action produces a positive evaluation by further activating this schema.
Despite strong consensus about the basic features that make someone look objectively attractive, contextual variation may modulate subjective assessments. Here, we investigate how social group ...membership provides such a context, comparing attractiveness judgments between lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) versus straight perceivers, and examining how these attractiveness judgments relate to beliefs about the target person's sexual orientation. We indeed find that perceivers rate targets as more attractive when they believe the target's sexual majority/minority status matches their own (Study 1). This association differs according to context, however: Although straight and LGB perceivers evaluate the components of facial attractiveness similarly (Study 2), straight men use attractiveness as a cue to sexual orientation (i.e., deeming unattractive women lesbians; Study 3) whereas LGB perceivers use sexual orientation as a cue to attractiveness (e.g., gay men rate men they believe are gay as more attractive than men they believe are straight; Studies 4 and 5). Thus, LGB identity seems to create a context in which sexual minority perceivers learn to attend to information about sexual diversity that straight perceivers may ignore. These findings highlight how group membership provides a lens for social perception, specifically pointing to how the contextual mindset of partner selection may transmute otherwise objective judgments, such as facial attractiveness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
In most studies of facial attractiveness perception, judgments are based on the whole face images. Here we investigated how attractiveness judgments from parts of faces compare to perceived ...attractiveness of the whole face, and to each other. We manipulated the extent and regions of occlusion, where either the left/right or the top/bottom half of the face was occluded. We also further segmented the face into relatively small horizontal regions involving the forehead, eyes, nose, or mouth. The results demonstrated the correlated nature of face regions, such that an attractiveness judgment for one face part can be highly predictive of the attractiveness of the whole face or the other parts. The left/right half of the face created more accurate predictions than the top/bottom half. Judgments involving a larger area of the face (i.e., left/right or top/bottom halves) produced more accurate predictions than those derived from smaller regions, such as the eyes or the mouth alone, but even the smallest and most featureless region investigated (the forehead) provided useful information. The correlated nature of the attractiveness of face parts shows that perceived attractiveness is determined by multiple covarying cues that the visual system can exploit to determine attractiveness from a single glance.
Does physical appearance significantly influence hiring decisions and customer service effectiveness? This article presents evidence of an early phase of discrimination in the recruitment process in ...the tourism and hospitality sectors, particularly in Jakarta City. In addition to providing evidence on the extent of the early discrimination phase in the tourism and hospitality labor markets, data from online job postings was collected from the job portal jobstreet.co.id. This study used a digital sociology approach to collect the data. The data were collected through web screening using filter tools in the tourism and hospitality sectors. The findings show that beauty or physical attractiveness as a specific requirement for job positions in the tourism and hospitality industries is an early phase of discrimination. The results also support the idea that physically attractive individuals have more opportunities in the tourism and hospitality fields.
We investigate the effect of male corporate managers' physical appearance—classified into unattractive, average-looking, and attractive—on the philanthropic decisions of Chinese listed firms. We find ...that compared to average-looking managers, those who rated as attractive do not engage more actively in corporate donations. On the contrary, the probability of donating is approximately 5% higher for unattractive managers than for average-looking managers; further, unattractive managers donate 95% more in charitable giving. To explain these findings, we propose a psychological channel through which physical appearance may influence male managers' charitable donations: Because altruistic behaviors may aggrandize individuals, managers conscious of deficits in their own physical attractiveness may engage in prosocial behavior to increase their attractiveness in the eyes of others. We find consistent evidence that the effect of managers' unattractiveness on philanthropic decisions is stronger in firms with weaker corporate governance; further, we find that the positive impact of corporate donation on financial performance observed in firms led by attractive and average-looking managers is substantially weaker in those firms led by unattractive managers.
•Compared to average-looking CEOs, attractive CEOs do not engage more in corporate donation.•Unattractive CEOs are more likely to donate and with a greater amount.•This unattractiveness effect is stronger in firms with weaker corporate governance.•Donations by attractive and average-looking CEOs contribute to better financial performance.•Donations by unattractive managers barely contribute to better financial performance.
Attractiveness Computing in Image Media YAMASAKI, Toshihiko
IEICE Transactions on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications and Computer Sciences,
2023
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Our research group has beenworking on attractiveness prediction, reasoning, and even enhancement for multimedia content, which we call “attractiveness computing.” Attractiveness includes ...impressiveness, instagrammability, memorability, clickability, and so on. Analyzing such attractiveness was usually done by experienced professionals but we have experimentally revealed that artificial intelligence (AI) based on big multimedia data can imitate or reproduce professionals' skills in some cases. In this paper, we introduce some of the representative works and possible real-life applications of our attractiveness computing for image media.
Physical attractiveness is an essential factor in consumers' evaluation processes during a service encounter. Using both experimental and field study designs, we demonstrate that a service ...representative's physical attractiveness affects consumer response (i.e., customer satisfaction, service quality perception, and likability of the service representative). Also, we find that a consumer's social distance perception between themselves and a service representative mediates the physical attractiveness effect on consumer response. Thus, this article is the first to demonstrate that social distance perception is an underlining mechanism of the physical attractiveness effect. Furthermore, findings from Studies 2 and 3 show that consumers' physical attractiveness and their attractiveness-ability belief moderate the physical attractiveness effect. Although contentious to some, our findings indicate that the recruitment of attractive representatives may be an effective business practice in service settings. However, managers should not regard consumers as a homogeneous group; self-perceived unattractive consumers may respond negatively to their service representative's physical attractiveness.
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