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How and when do attractiveness stereotypes develop?*
*(This is a short summary of our work and is not a complete summary of the developmental literature on the effects of attractiveness. For a more complete summary, download Langlois et al. (2000). Maxims or myths of beauty? A meta-analytic and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 390-423. (2.2 Mb).
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Infancy:
We observed mothers interacting with their firstborn babies and found that mothers are more affectionate toward and play more with attractive infants (as rated by college students) compared with mothers of less attractive infants. And, mothers of less attractive infants perceive them as interfering more in their lives than do mothers of more attractive infants. This is not to say that mothers treat their unattractive infants badly--all the mothers in this study were excellent moms. Even among excellent moms, however, the attractiveness of an infant seems to influence maternal behavior.
- Langlois, J.H., Ritter, J.M., Casey, R.J., &
Sawin, D.B. (1995). Infant attractiveness predicts maternal behaviors
and attitudes. Developmental Psychology, 31, 464-472.
- Stephan, C.W., & Langlois, J.H. (1984).
Baby beautiful: Adult attributions of infant competence as a
function of infant attractiveness. Child Development, 55,
576-585.
- Ritter, J.M., Casey, R.J., & Langlois,
J.H. (1991). Adults' responses to infants varying in appearance
of age and attractiveness. Child Development, 62, 68-82.
In addition to research showing that adults treat infants differently as a function of the infant's attractiveness, research shows that infants behave differently toward adults as a function of the adults' attractiveness. For example, babies look longer at faces that are rated as attractive by adults than at faces rated as unattractive by adults. And, 12-month-olds respond differently to strangers based on the stranger's facial attractiveness. (NOTE TO PARENTS: This finding applies only to how babies respond to STRANGERS. There is NO evidence to suggest that babies respond to their own parents' differently depending on the parents' facial attractiveness!). One-year-olds are more involved in play and show more positive affect toward an attractive stranger than an unattractive stranger. In contrast, when the stranger is unattractive, babies withdraw from the stranger more often than when the stranger is attractive. For more information see:
- Langlois, J.H., Ritter, J.M., Roggman, L.A.,
& Vaughn, L.S. (1991). Facial diversity and infant
preferences for attractive faces. Developmental Psychology, 27,
79-84.
- Langlois, J.H., Roggman, L.A., Casey, R.J.,
& Ritter, J.M. (1987). Infant preferences for attractive
faces: Rudiments of a stereotype? Developmental Psychology,
23, 363-369.
- Langlois, J.H., Roggman, L.A., Rieser-Danner,
L.A. (1990). Infants' differential social responses to attractive
and unattractive faces. Developmental Psychology, 26,
153-159. Study 1.
- Rieser-Danner, L. A., Roggman, L. A., & Langlois, J. H. (1987). Infant attractiveness and perceived temperament in the prediction of attachment classifications. Infant Mental Health Journal, 8,
144-155.
Childhood:
As children grow older, attractiveness continues to influence their interactions with others. Physical attractiveness affects whom children choose as peers and what traits they attribute to other children.
Attractive children are liked more, are perceived as being smarter, and are rated higher on sharing and friendliness and lower on meanness and hitting than less attractive children. Furthermore, this is just as true for children who know each other as it is for children who do not (but who are asked who they would play with if some new kids came to school). For more information see:
- Vaughn, B. E., & Langlois, J. H. (1983). Physical attractiveness as a correlate of peer status and social competence in preschool children.
Developmental Psychology, 19, 561-567.
- Langlois, J.H. & Stephan, C. (1977). The
effects of physical attractiveness and ethnicity on children's
behavioral attributions and peer preferences. Child
Development, 48, 1694-1698.
- Stephan, C.W., & Langlois, J.H. (1980).
Physical attractiveness and ethnicity: Implications for
stereotyping and social development. Journal of Genetic
Psychology, 137, 303-304.
- Vaughn, B. E., & Langlois, J. H. (1983).
Physical attractiveness as a correlate of peer status and
social competence in preschool children. Developmental Psychology, 19, 561-567.
When children are paired with another child of the same level of attractiveness, they tend to show more affiliative behaviors than children paired with a peer of a different level of attractiveness.
- Langlois, J.H., & Downs, A.C. (1979).
Peer relations as a function of physical attractiveness: The eye
of the beholder or behavioral reality? Child Development, 50,
409-418.
Children's "beauty is good" stereotypes may be strengthened and maintained as a result of schematic information processing. Whe presented young children (aged 3 to 7) with a story accompanied by a picture portraying two characters who varied in attractiveness. The characters displayed positive or negative traits that were either consistent or inconsistent with the "beauty is good" stereotype. When we asked the children questions about the story characters, the made more errors identifying female characters with stereotype inconsistent traits than female characters with stereotype consistent traits. This shows that level of attractiveness affects information children remember about females.
- Ramsey, J.L., & Langlois, J.H. (2002).
Effects of the "beauty is good" stereotype on children's
information processing. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 81,
320-340.
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