Are Beautiful People Thought to be Better? An Example of the Relationship between Physical Attractiveness and Expectations

In our society, people who are good-looking are assumed and expected to be better than the rest of the popula-tion, especially within the workforce. In the current study it was hypothesized that unattractive applicants would score lower on questions about their personal attributes even though their qualifications for the job were the same as the attractive applicant’s. Eighteen female undergraduate students were given two resumes, a resume with a picture of an attractive applicant attached to it and a resume with a picture of an unattractive applicant attached to it. Participants then completed a questionnaire about the applicant’s personal attributes. A one-way within subject ANOVA revealed no differences between the attractive and unattractive job applicant. In our society people who are good-looking are assumed and expected to be better than the rest of the population. According to Kenealy, Frude, and Shaw (2001), research indicates that an indi-vidual’s physical attractiveness is an important social cue used by others as a basis for social evaluation. This leads one to believe that physical attractiveness affects how society views people and also how people can be misinterpreted based on their looks. Since many people stereotype physically attractive people as bein