Salience of Physical Appearance in Impression Formation

Abstract

Descriptions of others often include an enumeration of their traits and it is char acteristic of people to form impressions of others based solely on these descrip tions. The present research assumed an analogy between these trait descriptions and various aspects of physical appearance which are known to generate such descriptions. Thus impression formation research on trait descriptions was used as a model to explain and predict impression formation research on physical appearance. In order to examine how judgments of an individual are affected by the physical appearance of the individual, subjects viewed and rated slides of drawings. The stimulus person depicted in the drawings was constant across all drawings while various aspects of physical appearance, such as clothing, were varied. The slides were developed from a factorial combination of four specific physical appearance cues. The design was a five‐way factorial having two levels (presence or absence) for each of the factors and repeated measures on each factor. In accord with the model, it was hypothesized that physical appearance cues which have an impact on impressions of sociability would be more influen tial (primarily salient) in evoking judgments of likableness than judgments of respect. It was also hypothesized that physical appearance cues which have an impact on impressions of intellectuality would be more influential (primarily sa lient) in evoking judgments of respect than judgments of likableness. Statistical analyses revealed some support for each of the hypotheses. For example, the presence or absence of the long skirt and red hair had an impact on first impres sions only when the particular cue was salient for the judgment elicited. Thus it was not the cue in and of itself which led to significant differences in first impres sions, but rather the fit between the cue and the judgment elicited. Ways to simplify the procedure are suggested in order to better address the hypotheses in future research.