A study examined the influence of physical attractiveness and trait argumentativeness as predictors of responses to an argumentative situation. Subjects, 152 college students identified as either high or low in trait argumentativeness, were randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions: attractive or unattractive anticipated adversary. A cover story about an upcoming debate with students from another college was used to generate the data. Results indicated that the physical attractiveness of the intended adversary did not significantly affect either resultant motivation to argue or situation perception, but that the general motivational trait of argumentativeness strongly did. The findings suggest that physical attractiveness is less important in argument than in nonconflict situations, or is simply obscured by the power of the trait predisposition to argumentativeness. (JL)