The Effects of Women's Age and Physical Appearance on Evaluations of Attractiveness and Social Desirability

The Effects of Women's Age and Physical Appearance on Evaluations of Attractiveness and Social Desirability

Without question, the concepts of attractiveness and age are both important considerations to many individuals within Western culture. Age itself, is often viewed as a component of physical attractiveness. Arthur H. Perlini, Susan Bertolissi and David L. Lind performed an interesting study that incorporates the well-recognized factors of age and attractiveness. Moreover, the study used these two factors as variables, and evaluated if their absence or presence effected the way an individual was perceived by others. Specifically, the researchers studied if a person's attractiveness and age have an effected whether or not others perceived them as being socially desirable.

The participants in the study consisted of two groups, a younger group and an older group. Both groups of participants were used as judges in evaluating photographs on several different topics. The older participants, or judges in this case consisted of a panel of 40 women and 40 men, ranging from sixty to eighty-five years old. The younger group of judges consisted of 40 women and 40 men, ranging from eighteen to thirty years of age. The older sample of mentally healthy individuals was selected from local senior citizen residencies. The younger sample of judges was recruited from an introductory psychology participant pool at Algoma University College.

The study itself was performed in an interesting way, in an attempt to limit confounding variables. The experimenters selected three photos of attractive younger models, and three photos of attractive older models from several magazines. The photo's used in the study were only of females, ...

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...al of Personality and Social Psychology, 24, 207-213.

Bibliography:

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transgressions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 24, 207-213.