http://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/01/s...nd-to-run-surprisingly-deep.html?pagewanted=1
Cliffs:
-Personality = Looks
-Looks are far more important than anything else when it comes to dating success
-Women make money now, so all they care about is LOOKS
-People get treated better after plastic surgery
-School popularity = Looks
Highlights:
Cliffs:
-Personality = Looks
-Looks are far more important than anything else when it comes to dating success
-Women make money now, so all they care about is LOOKS
-People get treated better after plastic surgery
-School popularity = Looks
Highlights:
Young adults asked to describe the personalities of people depicted in head-and-shoulder photographs said that those who were physically attractive would be ''more sensitive, kind, interesting, strong, poised, modest, sociable, outgoing, exciting and sexually warm and responsive persons,'
The studies show that people known (or supposed) to be physically attractive are invested by others with a host of desirable characteristics, such as warmth, poise, sensitivity, kindness, sincerity and the potential for social, marital and occupational success. And according to Dr. Ellen Berscheid, professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, these beliefs about physically attractive people, and the preferential treatment that grows out of them, can have lasting effects on an individual's personality, social life, and educational and career opportunities.
College students paired as dates at a ''computer dance'' preferred others who were physically attractive; the partners' intelligence, social skills and personality had little to do with the students' reaction to their dates, a Minnesota study by Elaine Hatfield Walster and her associates showed. ''These results gave the lie to what people had said was important to them in previous studies,'' the researchers concluded.
As women become more independent socially and economically, Dr. Berscheid sees them placing a greater emphasis on the attractiveness of men, ''who are now in the 'meat market' just like women have always been.'' She cited the recent advent of male centerfolds and male nude dancers as examples of women's interests in how men look.
Sometimes patients react badly -''with pain and bewilderment'' - to significant improvements in their appearance, Dr. Berscheid told the meeting at the University of Michigan. This reaction could result from the realization that we are not just loved for ourselves but for what we look like, she suggested.
Dr. Berscheid believes there is a hazard inherent in denying the impact of physical attractiveness: ''Unattractive children who are unpopular may wrongly attribute their lack of popularity to some flaw in their character or personality,'' she says. Such an error, she believes, could result in lasting and painful scars.
