Beauty Bias Research Articles

Using photo editing to understand the impact of species aesthetics on support for conservation

Abstract Many threatened species suffer from a lack of conservation attention compared to others. Prioritisation of funding, research and conservation efforts seem to be driven by reasons beyond conservation need. This could be due to a ‘beauty bias’, whereby aesthetically pleasing species receive more attention. We examined how editing an image to increase a species' aesthetic appeal may impact donation choices and public attitude towards that species. We posed two research questions; first, ‘do people make different donation choices when they see original images of a species compared to when they see images of the same species that have been edited to match aesthetic preferences?’ Using hypothetical donation experiments, we asked respondents to allocate funds to the conservation of three pictured species, one ‘aesthetically appealing’, one ‘aesthetically unappealing’, and one whose image was either edited to reflect common aesthetic preferences or left unedited. Our findings suggest that images edited to make an animal more visually appealing tend to receive higher hypothetical donation amounts than original images. We also posed a second research question; ‘How do people of varying conservation expertise respond to original versus edited images of wildlife?’ To investigate this, we ran three focus groups with individuals unfamiliar with our test species, those familiar with two or more of our test species, and with conservation professionals, which showed mixed reactions both within and between groups. Focus group participants with less conservation expertise noted that edited images often seemed ‘cuter’ than unedited images, and were more likely to compare them to cartoon characters. Participants with more conservation expertise and species familiarity reported greater empathy towards unedited images, and noted that the edited images prompted an ‘uncanny valley’ response, highlighting the need for further scrutiny in how photo editing might be used in conservation messaging. Our findings support the beauty bias hypothesis and highlight that decisions on conservation support should acknowledge that less aesthetically pleasing species are disadvantaged in public attention and funding. In addition, the findings highlight the role of conservation expertise in impacting viewer reactions, as well as the ethical implications of editing images of wildlife. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

How beautiful people see the world: Cooperativeness judgments of and by beautiful people

Perceived beauty is one of the strongest predictors of perceived cooperativeness, causing the “beauty bias”. Through a large three-stage incentivized behavioral and rating experiment (N=357), we study (1) the beauty bias in incentivized predictions of cooperativeness and (2) the ex-post relevance of beauty ratings for predicting cooperativeness in an incentivized game. We additionally (3) investigate if one's beauty influences the beauty bias in predictions of cooperativeness of others. Our findings demonstrate the robustness of the beauty bias and its irrelevance for making accurate predictions. We further observe that individuals are affected by the beauty bias irrespective of their beauty. Overall, the results highlight the importance of strong institutions that protect individuals from falling prey to the beauty bias.

Television culture and the beauty bias problem: an analysis of India’s postmillennial television serials

This study aims to critically analyze the problem of the beauty bias prevalent in contemporary India with the help of popular postmillennial Hindi television serials. It begins with a review of literature on television’s social impact and then demonstrates how representations of women on Indian television have historically been deeply interwoven with hegemonic perceptions of appearance. It then examines as case studies five popular tele serials which, while trying to be forward-looking attempts at critiquing beauty norms, in actuality reinstate normative ideals of appearance or a globally dominant beauty myth. The findings of this study indicate that most so-called progressive serials implicitly endorse casual sexism against female bodies and/or subject the purportedly unattractive female protagonist to a life of injustices owing to her lack of proverbial good looks. Accordingly, this study claims that popular television dramas instead of empowering women often uphold the beauty bias so as to attain mass appeal along with sponsorships and high target rating points. Finally, this study hopes that its findings will provide inputs for television producers and policy makers who may not only prevent body shaming and appearance discrimination, but also promote nuanced and inclusive representations of female embodiment on Indian television.

Using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) to Examine Implicit Beauty Bias in the Context of Employability

Attractiveness bias has been well-documented in social domains, however, an investigation into the attractiveness-bias effect on employability has not been conducted using implicit measures. In Study 1 (N = 24) the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) and a number of explicit measures (e.g., self-report questionnaires) were used to investigate the attractiveness-bias effect on employability using stimuli of high and low attractiveness. Results from Study 1 indicated that there was a significant bias in the direction of attractive-employable on explicit and implicit measures. In Study 2, (N = 52) these measures were used to investigate the attractiveness-bias effect on employability using stimuli of high and medium attractiveness. Results from Study 2 indicated that there was a significant bias in the direction of attractive-employable on explicit measures and a significant bias in the direction of attractive-employable and medium-attractive-unemployable on implicit measures. There was no effect of participant gender on D-scores for either study. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research and implications for the use of implicit measurement to measure attractiveness bias in the domain of employability.

When Does Beauty Pay? A Large Scale Image Based Appearance Analysis on Career Transitions

A rich literature has demonstrated facial attractiveness related discrimination (beauty bias ) in a wide range of contexts, such as personal marketing, election voting and employment. Under a controlled lab setting, most of these studies have found that attractiveness is rewarded. However, these studies cannot imitate long-term, real world interactions and thus lack external validity. In this paper, we show the long-term dynamics of bias to discern among sources of attractiveness bias. We investigate two sources of attractiveness bias, namely, belief based and preference based. Belief based bias against subjects exists because evaluators have group-level priors based on the subjects’ attractiveness. These priors are overcome as the evaluator obtains objective signals of performance. Preference based bias exists because evaluators have an inherent taste for a social, romantic or marital relationship with attractive subjects. We use one of the largest archival longitudinal data sets (43,533 MBA graduates) in this area of research to identify these two sources. We find that attractiveness is associated with a 2.4% gap over a 15-year career period. This gap is largely explained by preference bias which is associated with attractiveness gap of 0.52% per year. On the other hand, belief bias has no significant role in post-MBA professional careers. This is a significant finding because belief bias towards an individual can be minimized by the individuals’ performance information. However, preference based biases are much harder to remove. In our setting, there are two key challenges in working with unstructured data. First, for an individual, we observe only one current picture, which is taken up to 25 years after the start of the individual’s professional career. We build a generative deep learning model to create life-like versions of a face, thus allowing us to emulate the employers’ perceptions of how the individual looked at a younger age. Second, individuals move across job profiles, companies and locations, thereby making it difficult to directly compare their career milestones. We construct a preference order for jobs (job rank) based on observed job switching and text-based job title similarities.

The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law by Deborah L. Rhode New York: Oxford University Press, 2010

The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law by Deborah L. Rhode New York: Oxford University Press, 2010

Book review: The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law

Book review: The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law

The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law. By Deborah L. Rhode New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. 252 pp. $24.95 cloth.

<i>The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law</i>. By Deborah L. Rhode New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. 252 pp. $24.95 cloth.

The beauty bias: the injustice of appearance in life and law

Preface CHAPTER 1: Introduction The Personal Becomes Political: The Trouble With Shoes The Costs and Consequences of Appearance Surveying the Foundations: Social, Biological, Economic, Technological, and Media Forces Feminist Challenges and Responses Appearance Discrimination: Social Wrongs and Legal Rights Legal Frameworks A Roadmap for Reform CHAPTER 2: The Importance of Appearance and the Costs of Conformity Definitions of Attractiveness and Forms of Discrimination Interpersonal Relationships and Economic Opportunities Self-Esteem, Stigma, and Quality of Life Gender Differences The Price of Upkeep: Time and Money Health Risks Bias CHAPTER 3: The Pursuit of Beauty Sociobiological Foundations Cultural Values, Status, and Identity Market Forces Technology The Media Advertising The Culture of Beauty CHAPTER 4: Critics and Their Critics Nineteenth- and Early- Twentieth-Century Critics The Contemporary Women's Movement Critiques Responses Personal Interests and Political Commitments Beyond the Impasse CHAPTER 5: The Injustice of Discrimination Ensuring Equal Opportunity: Challenging Stigma and Stereotypes Challenging Subordination Based on Class, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Disability, and Sexual Orientation Protecting Self-Expression: Personal Liberty and Cultural Identity The Rationale for Discrimination and Resistance to Prohibitions The Parallel of Sex Harassment The Contributions of Law CHAPTER 6: Legal Frameworks The Limitations of Prevailing Legal Frameworks Prohibitions on Appearance Discrimination A Comparative Approach: European Responses to Appearance Discrimination The Contributions and Limitations of Legal Prohibitions on Appearance Discrimination Consumer Protection: Prohibitions on False and Fraudulent Marketing Practices Directions for Reform CHAPTER 7: Strategies for Change Defining the Goal Individuals Business and the Media Law and Policy

The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law

The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law

Don’t let your company fall victim to beauty bias

Don’t let your company fall victim to beauty bias

Book Review: Beauty Bias

Book Review: Beauty Bias

Beauty bias: discrimination and social power

Beauty bias: discrimination and social power

Beauty Bias: Discrimination and Social Power by Bonnie Berry

Beauty Bias: Discrimination and Social Power by Bonnie Berry

Physical appearance and cosmetic medical treatments: physiological and socio‐cultural influences

This paper reviews the physiological and socio-cultural literatures on the role of physical appearance in daily life and its potential influence on the decision to pursue cosmetic medical treatments. The role of physical appearance in evolutionary theory is discussed. Physiological theories of beauty, drawn from both animal and human research, are reviewed. Socio-cultural influences on physical appearance are considered by tracing changes in ideals of beauty over the last century. The paper then reviews the literature concerning the relationship between a person's physical appearance and how they are treated throughout their lives. The growing awareness of this 'beauty bias' may influence the decision to alter one's physical appearance through cosmetic procedures.

Men's and Women's Reactions to Hypothetical Sexual Advances: The Role of Initiator Socioeconomic Status and Level of Coercion

Research on sexual coercion has revealed a beauty bias in that participants judge coercive sexual advances committed by attractive individuals as more acceptable than coercive advances committed by unattractive individuals. In this study, we examined the extent to which there exists a similar socioeconomic status bias in people's perceptions. Participants (N = 160) read 1 of 8 vignettes that depicted sexual advances and responded to several questions about the acceptability of the initiator's behavior. The coerciveness of the advance was manipulated by varying whether the touch occurred in a gentle manner with no threat or in a forceful manner with a threat of harm. Male participants always received a vignette that portrayed a woman initiating a sexual advance, and female participants always received a vignette that portrayed a man initiating a sexual advance. Socioeconomic status of the initiator was manipulated by what type of clothing he/she wore (shabby or expensive) and the car he/she drove (old or new). Results indicated that a gentle touch was more acceptable than a forceful touch, and men found sexual advances more acceptable than did women. Participants rated sexual advances by wealthy individuals as more acceptable than sexual advances by poor individuals. However, the greater acceptability of advances by wealthy individuals appeared to hold up only in the case of a gentle touch. In addition, men appeared to be more prone to the socioeconomic status bias than were women. Methodological limitations and future directions are discussed.

Men's Reactions to Hypothetical Forceful Sexual Advances from Women: The Role of Sexual Standards, Relationship Availability, and the Beauty Bias

The study investigated 142 college men's reactions to a vignette in which they were to imagine receiving a physically forceful sexual advance from a female casual acquaintance. Participants were predominantly middle-class Caucasian students from psychology classes. Results revealed that men with more restricted sexual standards had significantly more negative reactions to the advance than did men with less restricted standards. Further, only 16% of men with more restricted sexual standards, compared to 34% of men with less restricted standards, said they would consent to sex with the vignette woman. Men who were instructed to assume that they had a girlfriend in the scenario situation had more negative reactions to the advance than did men who assumed that they did not have a girlfriend. Evidence was found for a beauty bias: men who read that the initiator was average looking had less positive reactions than did men who read that the initiator was very attractive. Results add support to the authors' Sexual Opportunity Model explaining men's reactions to coercive sexual contact with women.

Men's reactions to hypothetical female sexual advances: A beauty bias in response to sexual coercion

The study investigated 277 college men's reactions to a vignette in which they were to imagine receiving an uninvited sexual advance from a casual female acquaintance. Subjects were predominantly middle-class Caucasian students. The vignette varied in the degree of coercion used (low — touch, moderate — push, high — threat, and very high — weapon). For each coercion level, the initiator was described as either very attractive or very unattractive. Subjects rated acceptability of the act, feelings of being pleased, violated, and negatively affected by the incident, and indicated if they would consent to further sexual activity. Results showed that men had significantly more negative reactions to advances that employed high and very high levels of force as compared to low and moderate levels. A beauty bias was found in that men had more positive (or less negative) reactions to the actions of an attractive vs. an unattractive initiator. Men had generally positive reactions to the sexual advance of an attractive woman who used low or moderate levels of coercion. Reactions to all other vignette situations were predominantly negative. As a model for future research, it is proposed that male and female reactions to sexual coercion can be predicted by levels of violation of sexual standards, force used, initiator sexual desirability, and romantic relationship with the initiator.