Physical Attractiveness, Self-Disclosure, and Helping Behavior

Summary A field experiment was carried out in which female confederates asked 216 male Ss for directions to a health services building. Half of the Ss received self-disclosure information—i.e., the confederate's (C) name—while half received no self-disclosure. In addition, the Cs were either physically attractive or unattractive. It was found that more time was spent giving instructions to attractive Cs than to unattractive Cs. While the main effect for self-disclosure was not significant, there was a significant interaction with attractiveness. The greatest amount of help was given to attractive Cs who self-disclosed. The least amount of help was received by the unattractive Cs who disclosed their name.