A direct test of and an alternative explanation for judgments of attractiveness of supporters of the women's movement.

Abstract

Investigations of the possible bias against women who support the women's movement have used a paradigm requiring subjects to sort photographs into two categories. Based on these sortings, differential judgments of physical attractiveness were inferred without having the subjects who performed the sorting actually rate the photos. Such procedures can never rule out alternative explanations for the results. To provide increased confidence in the previous findings, the present study had subjects rate photos thought to depict persons with varying positions toward the movement. Additionally, correlational data were gathered to test a more parsimonious explanation, that of an attitude similarity mediated error (AS-ME) which can subsume the previous mixed findings. The results replicated the earlier findings indicating no general bias against supporters and, furthermore, showed that the attractiveness ratings were related to attitudes held by the subjects. It was concluded that persons erroneously perceive similar others to be more attractive than dissimilar others, rather than perceive supporters in general to be less attractive.

Correlates of the tendency toward physical attractiveness stereotyping: Individual differences in cognitive structure and political party affiliation.

“…Nonetheless, there have been no reports of individual differences in this tendency. Even attempts at correlating attractiveness stereotyping with attitudes toward the stereotyped groups have met with mixed results (Beaman, Klentz & Conrad, 1984; Dew, in press; Goldberg, Gottesdiener & Abramson, 1975; Johnson, Holborn & Turcotte, 1979).…”