Physical Attractiveness and Self-Esteem

Abstract

Prior research has found that although physically attractive people are consistently viewed and treated more favorably than those who are less attractive, there is a surprisingly weak relationship between physical attractiveness and self-esteem. An attributional explanation for this relationship was tested in the present study. Males and females who were either high or low in self-rated attractiveness wrote an essay on which they received praise from a fictitious other-sex evaluator who had presumably either seen or not seen them prior to giving the praise. As predicted, high attractive individuals discounted the praise when they had been seen by the evaluator, attributing it less to the quality of their work or writing style than when they had not been seen by the evaluator. In contrast, low attractive individuals were more likely to attribute praise to work-related factors when they had been seen than when they had not been seen by the evaluator.