Background of the Study

A group of twenty strangers were gathered in the hall. After a few minutes of silence,

a series of conversations sparked among the group. A man who was across the room,

walked all the way to the other side to talk to the woman dressed in red. Of all the people

gathered in the room, why did he chose to converse with the woman in red? The simple

explanation for this would be－attraction. Attraction, by definition, is the process in

which an individual has manifested a desire, interest, or wanting for another individual

due to a feature that he or she possesses. Connections are made through attractions as it

is, most of the time, what evokes people to reach out to one another and to build

relationships.

Some people’s knowledge of attraction is limited to only sexual attraction. However,

sexual attraction is not the only existing attraction as there is also physical attraction,

social attraction, and other known attractions. Physical attraction can either be subjective

or objective. According to Graeme(2014), subjective physical attraction is the desire for

someone on a more personal and visceral level at a close proximity. Whereas, objective

physical attraction is more on the appearance level of attraction that doesn’t require close

proximity. This objective physical attraction is what the researchers wanted to recognize.

Social attraction or interpersonal attraction based on the study of Lewandowski(2001), is

described as a “positive attitude or evaluation” towards a particular person that

encompasses behavioral, cognitive, and affective components.

In Talamas, Mavor, and Perrett’s(2016) study on attractiveness bias and perceptions

of academic performances, the results revealed that while there is no correlation between

physical attractiveness and intelligence(r = 0.03), there is a strong significant correlation

between physical attractiveness and perceived conscientiousness(r = 0.81). An article

was published on the Philippine Star Global in 2014 about a social experiment that was

conducted to test if good looks help an individual to get a particular job. It revealed that

good-looking men had a 54-percent callback rate in contrast to7-percent of the “looks-
challenged” ones. The studies mentioned implies that there is an unconscious favor

towards physically-attractive people.

Physical attractiveness is distinct from social attractiveness. Being physically-

attractive relies on an individual’s physical attributes that makes him or her appealing to

others, while social attractiveness involves the qualities and personality traits of a person

that makes that individual pleasing. However, what’s interesting is that one of the key

areas of social attraction is actually physical attractiveness. Physical attractiveness was

said to be the least important but it still plays a major role according to Goddard(2012).

People are most likely to favor physically-attractive individuals than average-looking

ones. The researchers became curious about the concept of physically-attractive

individuals being deemed as socially-attractive. The group discovered that there is

already a name given to this concept. And that is the Physical Attractiveness Stereotype.

To further elaborate, the stereotype is the belief that physically-attractive individuals

possess all the good qualities such as intelligent, talented, and sociable. The researchers

find the idea intriguing and therefore, the group decided to conduct a study among the

youth with ages 15-25 years that is within the University of St. La Salle community. The

group wanted to delve deeper into the topic with the hopes of proving that being

physically-attractive does not necessarily make a person more socially-attractive. Beauty

can be easily perceived, but conscientiousness and a good character needs to be tested.

Statement of the Problem

The researchers aim to determine how prevalent the Physical Attractiveness

Stereotype is in our society through knowing how Physical Attractiveness affects the

Social Attractiveness of a person.

Specifically, the study aims to answer the following questions;

1. What are the respondents profile based on:

a. Age
 b. Sex

c. Awareness of the Physical Attractiveness Stereotype

2. What are the qualities that makes a person socially-attractive in terms of;

a. Behavior

b. Performance

3. What are the qualities that makes a person physically-attractive in terms of;

a. Facial Features

b. Body Composition

4. How are each physical stimuli rated by the respondents according to:

a. Physical attractiveness

b. Social attractiveness

5. What is the correlation between physical attractiveness and social attractiveness

using the quantitative data gathered?

Hypothesis

There is no correlation between the physical attractiveness and the social

attractiveness of an individual.

Theoretical Framework

Physical attractiveness stereotype is a tendency of the people to assume that a person

that is viewed as physically-attractive also possesses good qualities and characteristics

and is socially approachable. This mindset affects the treatment given to a physically-

attractive persons compared to the average looking persons. In the research of Rohner,

J.C and Rasmussen A. (2012), the respondents stated that they believed attractive people

have positive qualities and unattractive persons have negative qualities regardless of what
information actually occurred. Based on this, the level of attractiveness really affects the

first impression of people around that certain person. Physical attractiveness determines

how people will perceive or view a certain person without actually interacting with one

another

Physical attractiveness does not only affect the first impressions of the people but

also how the society will that certain persons. It has also been observed that people who

are physically-attractive receives better treatment than those who are average looking.

According to the research of Angel Wang, attractiveness can bias the way a certain

person is treated in schools, in court and workplace. Not only that but research has also

shown that people who are good looking receives higher salaries and are most likely to be

given high ranked jobs. Because of physical attractiveness stereotypes, people believed

that those who are attractive have higher intelligence and good characteristics, allowing

them to have higher chance in employment. Physical features affects and influence the

behavior and interaction thus, creating an inequitable treatment of those who are good-

looking and those who are average looking.

Significance of the Study

The results of the study will be useful and significant to the following people.

Guidance Counselor. The guidance counselor will have a basis and a reference

about the student's behavior most specifically concerns on stereotyping physical

attractiveness.

School Administrator. The school administrator will be gaining insights and will be

given a hint on the approach of the majority of the students particularly on their behavior.

Students/Teenagers. This study will help the students to have a proper

understanding about the effects of physical attractiveness stereotype and be aware of the

possible actions to undertake.

 Parents. The findings of this study will give the parents an idea about their child's

behavior specifically how their child will be treated at the same time treat others based on

the physical looks.

Researchers. The study will benefit the researchers to be more knowledgeable about

the dilemma regarding with the physical attractiveness stereotype.

Future Researchers. For those in research field, this study can be a valuable guide

in their future research endeavors making the study as a reference material.

Scope and Limitations

This study will be conducted in the University of St. La Salle both professionals and

students specifically aged between 15 to 25 years old with a sample size of 15 males and

15 females. The researchers will also include a control group that will be the choices of

the respondents in the experiment we will conduct. The respondents will be surveyed first

of what are the characteristics of a physically and socially-attractive for them. A group of

people, apart from the respondents, will serve as the physical stimuli or the control group.

The control group’s physical and social attractiveness will be rated according to the

Likert scales customized by the group. The experiment will be conducted in an available

room in the said university, the time will be based on the availability of the respondents

or the schedule made by the researchers. This will be done during August to September

2018. This study will only discuss if there is a relationship between the physical

attractiveness of a person and their social attraction.

Review of Related Literature

The group included several related studies for better apprehension of the main

focus of the research. Each study is with regards to the attractiveness stereotype in the
society experienced by individuals. Likewise, these related studies gave the researchers

an overview of why such bias may exists, and actual situations wherein this type of

unfairness can be seen.

Physical Attractiveness Bias in the Legal System

A law project by Rod Hollier (2017) discussed specific and general effects of

attractiveness bias. These specific effects are related to the legal system. It states that the

physical attractiveness of an individual influences the judges sentencing and even the

views of the mock jury. Particularly, attractive people are given lower sentences when

find guilty, while unattractive people are given higher sentences. In addition, even

lawyers experience such bias since the study also discovered that in a law firm

physically-attractive women that have the desire to join the legal industry have greater

success than less attractive women.

Blinded by Beauty: Attractiveness Bias and Accurate Perceptions of Academic

Performance

According to Talamas, Mavor, and Perrett(2016), attractiveness influences the first

impressions of people towards an individual and how these first impressions affect

people’s decisions on treating a person. The study also touches the topic of how

attractiveness halo affects the academic performance of students inside the classroom.

Thus, the researchers conducted an investigation on actual academic performance of 100

university students to determine the impact of such attractiveness halo. However, before

doing so an investigation about perceived conscientiousness and perceived intelligence

was first conducted.

Overcoming the Attractiveness Bias

A research article by Ryan Duffy (2014) an assistant professor of psychology, took

into consideration the impact of how people view individuals physically to what they

personally think of these individuals. It states that the perspective of today’s society about

attractiveness can be explained by the famous phrase in psychology called “What is

beautiful is good”. This means that human beings have placed such bias in a way that

they see attractive people as better, particularly more socially competent, mentally

healthy, well adjusted, and intelligent. He also added that a current study showed that this

said bias is as strong as race or gender biases. Similarly, the article mentioned several

hypotheses about why such bias exists, and interpreted each. One of which is that many

scholars believe that attractiveness indicates physical health, and that this idea already

existed in the past which today’s generation only inherited. Lastly, the author claimed

that recognizing that there is bias is the first step in correcting it.

The Effects of Physical Attractiveness on Job-related Outcomes: A Meta-analysis of

Experimental Studies

The study of Hosoda, Stone – Romero, Coats (2006) is about the effects of physical

attractiveness bias on job-related outcomes. In addition, the said article supports the

implicit personality theory that attractive individuals tend to fare better or perform better

in a specified way in certain activities especially in relation with their profession or

career. Likewise, it mentioned that the effects of attractiveness bias in various studies did

not have a huge difference since often times people experience the same stereotype

because of their appearance. In a similar way, the article claimed that college students

and even professionals encounter such unfairness in the field or industry that they are

involved. Lastly, another finding of the meta-analytic review is that in the previous

years, the biasing effect of physical attractiveness is gradually decreasing.

Stereotype Directionality and Attractiveness Stereotyping: Is Beauty Good or is Ugly

Bad?

The researchers conducted a study about the directionality of attractiveness

stereotype, and if beauty means good or if ugly is bad. In the introduction, they first

narrated the 1972 seminal article of Dion, Berscheid, and Walster (2006), which also

related to their study. However, their article showed that "attractive people are preferred

over, and believed to possess more positive traits and characteristics than, unattractive

people." Because the researchers noticed that attractiveness is only associated to social
attitude of a person, they decided to conduct a study on the relationship of attractiveness

to three things: intelligence, sociability (being friendly) and altruism (being helpful).

To find out the results, they conducted two experiments. The first experiment involved

respondents who are psychology students, mostly Caucasian. In the second experiment,

they surveyed children aging 7-9 years old. So, in the first experiment, the support in

unattractiveness is bad is more strong than beauty is good. After conducting the secobd

experiment, they noticed that there is the same result with the first experiment.

The study concluded that the “unattractiveness-is-bad” is really shown in altruism and

intelligence while in sociability there is a bi-directional pattern supporting both

“unattractiveness-is-bad” and “beauty-is-good”.

Definition of Terms

Physical Attractiveness. This refers to the facial characteristics associated with

genetic fitness, for example averageness and symmetry. (J. Timothy Newton, 2015)

In this study, physical attractiveness are the physical attributes that are desirable

in the eyes of other people.

Stereotype. This is seen as a necessary mechanism for making sense of information

(David Amadio)

In this study, stereotype is the mindset in which people believes that people who

are physically-attractive are also socially approachable.

Attractiveness. This is a trait possessed by ‘socially-desirable’ people to a greater extent

(Dion)

In this study, attractiveness is how other persons are drawn to a certain person

who are physically-attractive.

Objective Physical Attractiveness. The judgment of the physical attractiveness based on

pictures or the person has no direct contact.

 In this study, objective physical attractiveness is where the researchers are

focusing on their study since the respondents are only rating the persons without

meeting directly.

Social Attractiveness. Traditionally defined in social psychology as a positive attitude or

evaluation regarding a particular person. (Lewandowski)

In this study, social attractiveness is how other people treat a certain person who

is viewed as physcally attractive.

Physical Attractiveness Stereotype. This is a term that psychologists use to refer to the

tendency to assume that people who are physically-attractive also possess other socially

desirable personality traits. (Daniel Marcu)

In this study, physical attractiveness stereotype refers to the mindset of the

people has in which good looking people are then assumed to have positive qualities.

Body Composition. Body composition is the proportion of fat and fat-free mass in your

body. (Jennifer Scott)

In this study, body composition refers to the body type or structure of a person

such as how curvy or slim the body of the person.

Facial Features. These are the points such as eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth are

prominent landmarks surrounding facial components. (Priyanka Borude)

In this study, facial features refers to the desired eyes, nose, lips and other

features that makes a person attractive

Conscientiousness. This refers to a personality construct that is a core determinant of

health, positive aging, and human capital (B.W Roberts)

In this study, conscientiousness refers to the quality that describes

the socially-attractive person.

Likert Scale. This is an applied as one of the most fundamental and frequently used

psychometric tools in

educational and social sciences research (A Joshi).

In this study, Likert Scale is used to rate the control group or their physical

stimuli social and physical attractiveness.