Abstract
Research with European Caucasian samples demonstrates that attractiveness-based biases in social evaluation depend on the constellation of the sex of the evaluator and the sex of the target: Whereas people generally show positive biases toward attractive opposite-sex persons, they show less positive or even negative biases toward attractive same-sex persons. By examining these biases both within and between different ethnicities, the current studies provide new evidence for both the generalizability and the specificity of these attractiveness-based social perception biases. Examining within-ethnicity effects, Study 1 is the first to demonstrate that samples from diverse ethnic backgrounds parallel the finding of European Caucasian samples: The advantageous or adverse effects of attractiveness depend on the gender constellation of the evaluator and the evaluated person. Examining between-ethnicity effects, Study 2 found that these attractiveness-based biases emerge almost exclusively toward targets of the evaluator's own ethnic background; these biases were reduced or eliminated for cross-ethnicity evaluations and interaction intentions. We discuss these findings in light of evolutionary principles and reflect on potential interactions between culture and evolved cognitive mechanisms.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-14 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Evolutionary Psychology |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 7 2016 |
Keywords
- Biological sex
- Cognitive bias
- Ethnicity
- Physical attractiveness
- Social evaluation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Behavioral Neuroscience