Pretty people get edge over others
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (UPI) -- People pay more attention to attractive people and identify the personality traits of physically attractive people more accurately, Canadian researchers say.
Study co-authors Jeremy Biesanz of the University of British Columbia, doctoral candidate Lauren Human, and undergraduate student Genevieve Lorenzo, say the study separated 75 male and female participants into groups of five to 11 people for 3-minute, one-on-one conversations.
After each interaction, study participants rated partners on physical attractiveness and five major personality traits -- openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Each person also rated his or her own personality.
The researchers determined the accuracy of people's perceptions by comparing participants' ratings of others' personality traits with how individuals rated their own traits, Benz says.
Despite an overall positive bias toward people they found attractive -- as expected from previous research -- study participants identified the "relative ordering" of personality traits of attractive participants more accurately than others, researchers say.
"If people think Jane is beautiful, and she is very organized and somewhat generous, people will see her as more organized and generous than she actually is," Biesanz says in a statement. "Despite this bias, our study shows that people will also correctly discern the relative ordering of Jane's personality traits -- that she is more organized than generous -- better than others they find less attractive."
Study co-authors Jeremy Biesanz of the University of British Columbia, doctoral candidate Lauren Human, and undergraduate student Genevieve Lorenzo, say the study separated 75 male and female participants into groups of five to 11 people for 3-minute, one-on-one conversations.
After each interaction, study participants rated partners on physical attractiveness and five major personality traits -- openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Each person also rated his or her own personality.
The researchers determined the accuracy of people's perceptions by comparing participants' ratings of others' personality traits with how individuals rated their own traits, Benz says.
Despite an overall positive bias toward people they found attractive -- as expected from previous research -- study participants identified the "relative ordering" of personality traits of attractive participants more accurately than others, researchers say.
"If people think Jane is beautiful, and she is very organized and somewhat generous, people will see her as more organized and generous than she actually is," Biesanz says in a statement. "Despite this bias, our study shows that people will also correctly discern the relative ordering of Jane's personality traits -- that she is more organized than generous -- better than others they find less attractive."
Copyright 2010 by United Press International
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