Little research has focused on the particular characteristics necessary to gain and retain social support. To examine whether individuals' differing social support level could be differentiated on social skill level and physical appearance, and if these differences apply equally to males and females, 168 college students (84 males, 84 females)…

Investigated variations in conceptual complexity level of counselor and client on counselor attraction to the client. Counselor trainees rated attractiveness of clients following two counseling analogue tasks in which the client was depicted as exhibiting high or low conceptual level. More complex clients are more attractive across both levels.…

Teacher's behavior toward preschool children varying in attractiveness and children's behavior toward their teachers were investigated. Participating were 64 preschool children and 9 teachers. Children, who attended a private preschool in Houston, Texas, were white, equally divided by sex and age, and from middle-income homes. A group of 30 adult…

Black subjects--classified as having "strong Black" or "weak Black" personalities--were asked to evaluate photos of Black and White women. As hypothesized, strong Black personality individuals judged the attractive Black female photo more favorably than the White counterpart; weak Black personality individuals judged the White female more…

Investigated relationships between perceived attractiveness, facial features, and African self-consciousness (ASC) among 149 African American college students. As predicted, high ASC subjects used more positive adjectives in descriptions of strong African facial features than did medium or low ASC subjects. Results are discussed in the context of…

Two studies examined schematic information processing as a function of attractiveness stereotyping among 3- to 7- year-olds. Found that children made more errors identifying female characters with stereotype-inconsistent traits but either did just the opposite with male characters or had no difference in errors with male characters. Findings pose…

Research on attraction in an interpersonal context has strongly suggested that the more attracted two people are to one another, the more they tend to communicate. This study explored attraction and social interaction patterns at the perceptual level. Eighty male and female graduate students, 40 black and 40 white, completed a two part measure of…

The role of two nonverbal variables, conversational distance and physical self-presentation, were examined as potential sources of distraction and for their consequent effects on susceptibility to persuasion. The distraction literature was reviewed and synthesized into five propositions, which served as a starting point for predicting how…

Research has shown that physically attractive people in this culture are treated more favorably than are unattractive people. If this is so, acts of sexual harassment perpetrated by attractive males might be viewed less harshly than the same acts perpetrated by unattractive males. A study was conducted to examine the relationshp between…

Male and female subjects judged an essay purportedly written by an attractive or an unattractive female author. The attractive author was rated as significantly more talented by male judges. Female judges rated the attractive author less talented although this difference was not statistically significant. A second experiment concerned ratings by…

Subjects were 44 males and 44 females. They were presented with a photograph showing a female with either an attractive or an unattractive male and with background information concerning the status of the male, (medical student or sales clerk). After receiving the information, subjects evaluated the female. Results revealed strong effects for…

Factor analysis of ratings of rehabilitation concepts across semantic differential scales indicated physically disabled adults connotatively structure their worlds along three major dimensions: attractiveness, dynamism, and morality. Potential theoretical implications are discussed. Descriptive information on factors of meaning extracted and…

While the influence of competence on interpersonal attraction has been examined from several perspectives, the attraction literature is relatively silent with respect to competitive interactions between the sexes. A study was conducted to examine the roles of competence and physical appearance in liking responses. Male (N=43) and female (N=53)…

Two studies, one with two- to three-month-olds and one with six- to eight-month-olds, examined infant preferences for attractive faces. A visual preference technique was used. Infants were shown slides of faces of adult women previously rated for attractiveness. When shown pairs of attractive and unattractive faces, older and younger infants…