Physical Disability Affects Women's but Not Men's Perception of Opposite-Sex Attractiveness.

Farid Pazhoohi,Alan Kingstone,Francesca Capozzi

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.788287

Farid Pazhoohi, Alan Kingstone + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.788287

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Abstract

Physical appearance influences our perceptions, judgments, and decision making about others. While the current literature with regard to the perceptions and judgments of nondisabled people’s attractiveness is robust, the research investigating the perceived physical attractiveness and judgments of physically disabled individuals is scarce. Therefore, in the current study, we investigated whether people with physical disabilities are perceived by the opposite sex as more or less attractive relative to nondisabled individuals. Our results, based on over 675 participants, showed a positive effect for women’s attractiveness ratings of men with physical disabilities, but not men’s attractiveness ratings of physically disabled women. Moreover, social desirability bias was positively associated with attractiveness ratings of physically disabled individuals, meaning those with higher tendency to be viewed favorably by others rated physically disabled individuals more attractive. Finally, our results revealed that attractiveness ratings of individuals with physical disabilities are positively associated with extroversion and empathy in both men and women, and positively with agreeableness and negatively with neuroticism in women. In conclusion, our study showed women rate men with physical disabilities as higher on attractiveness than nondisabled men, which is also influenced by their social desirability bias.

Highlights

Physical appearance can influence our perceptions, judgments, and decision making about others
Another linear mixed model using the subsample of participants (N = 392) was conducted to investigate the effect of physical disability on the perceptions of attractiveness, including social desirability bias (SDB) as a covariate
The positive association of SDB indicates that both men and women were influenced by their social desirability bias when rating attractiveness

Summary

Introduction

Physical appearance can influence our perceptions, judgments, and decision making about others. It has been shown that individuals will make systematic personality inferences merely from the shape of a person’s body (Hu et al, 2018), or nuanced changes in body postures and movements (Isbister and Nass, 2000; Koppensteiner and Grammer, 2011; Fink et al, 2012) In light of this plethora of evidence, it is not surprising to discover that perceptions of a Attractiveness and Physical Disability person’s facial and bodily attractiveness can influence explicit and implicit behaviors ranging from whether they are offered a job (Tews et al, 2009) to whether they are identified as a potential partner (Saxton et al, 2006). Physical characteristics that signal health and genetic quality are preferred and considered attractive by men and women in a potential partner as they eventually contribute to survival and reproductive success of their progenies (Symons, 1979; Barber, 1995; Gangestad and Scheyd, 2005)

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