Facial self-perception: Its relation to objective appearance and self-concept

Abstract

The ability to judge objectively the physical attractiveness of one’s own face and the relation of these judgments to self-concept were assessed. Thirty white female and 34 white male college students rated the physical attractiveness of their own faces, once without viewing their faces (memory condition) and once while viewing photographs of their faces and the faces of the other same-sex subjects (photograph condition). Self-concept was assessed by administration of the Tennessee Self Concept Scale. There was a significant positive correlation between subjects’ ratings of their own attractiveness and those they received from others. However, using the mean rating by others as an objective measure of appearance, subjects were also found to overestimate significantly the attractiveness of their own faces in both the memory and photograph conditions. Only a limited relationship between self-concept and self-perception was found. Overestimation of attractiveness was significantly correlated with more positive physical self-concepts only in the memory condition. None of the self-concept scores were significantly correlated with the attractiveness ratings by others.