Male and Female Attributions and Social Influence Behavior towards a Physically Attractive Female

Summary

Past reviews suggest that men and women not only make socially desirable attributions toward attractive and unattractive people, but that such attributions are correlated with positive social behavior toward attractive persons. To assess these suggestions 40 male and female Ss engaged in a social persuasion task and provided attributions toward an attractive or unattractive female confederate. While the female confederate received more socially desirable attributions in the attractive versus unattractive condition, no differences were observed in social persuasion behavior. Such findings question the assumption that social attributions are associated with differential social experiences based on a physical attractiveness stereotype.