Strong but flexible: How fundamental social motives support but sometimes also thwart favorable attractiveness biases.
Research corroborates the notion that fundamental social motives play an important role in biases that favor attractive people. Although an adaptationist framework expects favorable social effects of good looks in most situations and contexts, it simultaneously allows for potential negative social reactions and outcomes that may be elicited by physical attractiveness in other contexts. These effects of attractiveness reflect the reproductive opportunities and threats posed by potential mates and rivals.
Department of Psychology,Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU Munich),80802 Munich,GermanyMariaAgthe@lmu.dehttp://www.psy.lmu.de/soz/personen/mitarbeiter/agthe/index.html.
Maria
M
Agthe
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University,Evanston, IL 60208jon.maner@kellogg.northwestern.eduhttp://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/maner_jon.aspx.
Jon K
JK
Maner
D015982:Bias; D005075:Biological Evolution; D058025:Interdisciplinary Studies; D009042:Motivation; D011593:Psychology, Social