The Attractiveness Stereotype: Goodness or Glamour?

Three experiments that investigate the physical attractiveness stereotype are presented. The principal focus is on the domain of attributes which distinguish physically attractive from unattractive individuals. The first two experiments demonstrate that within the set of socially desirable attributes traditionally thought to be part of the stereotype, only a core having to do with social vitality is responsive to target attractiveness. It is hypothesized that when the core of positive attributes is considered in combination with the negative attributes of vanity, materialism and sexual permissiveness that have been found associated with attractiveness in other research, the stereotype corresponds more to a syndrome of glamour than one of goodness. Experiment 3 confirms this hypothesis by demonstrating that ratings of physically attractive and unattractive targets differ more on a dimension of glamour than one of goodness.