In a study at the University of Minnesota, men and women whose telephone conversations were recorded were informed that they were talking either to a physically attractive person or to someone who was not attractive. The taped conversations were later evaluated by judges who were unaware of the setup.
''A woman who was talking to a man who believed that she was physically attractive was judged, on the basis of her verbal behavior alone, to be more poised, more sociable, more vivacious, than was a woman who was talking to a man who believed her to be physically unattractive,'' Dr. Berscheid reported. And the men who thought they were talking to a physically attractive woman were judged by outside observers, again on the basis of their conversations only, to be more sociable, sexually warm, interesting, independent, bold, outgoing, humorous and socially adept.
