Year: 2003
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Stereotypes about attractiveness and gender seem to implicate each other \nin various ways. Previous research has found that adults rate highly attractive \ntargets as being more sex-typed than less attractive targets. This phenomenon has \nbeen identified as the “beauty-is-sex-typed” stereotype and has been examined \nonly in adults and with a limited number of sex-typed attributes. The studies \nreported here extend previous research and provide important developmental data \nby having adults (Experiment 1) and 7-9-year-old children (Experiment 2) rate \nmore and less attractive target faces for the likelihood of having feminine, \nmasculine, and gender-neutral attributes. Attributes used in ratings included items \nfrom three different gender stereotype domains (i.e., traits, activities, and \noccupations) in order to provide a more complete examination of the beauty-issex-typed \nstereotype than has been assessed previously. Results showed that both \nadults and children subscribe to the beauty-is-sex-typed stereotype, but for female \ntargets only: All participants rated high attractive females significantly higher \nthan low attractive females on having feminine traits, activities, and occupations. \nAdditionally, children but not adults rated attractive females higher than \nunattractive females on gender-neutral attributes. In contrast, all participants rated \nmales, regardless of attractiveness, as equally masculine and gender-neutral in \nattributes. Children’s results did not appear to depend on the cognitive skill of \nmultiple classification even though expressing a beauty-is-sex-typed stereotype \nconceptually requires noticing both a target’s gender and attractiveness. \nSecondary results included that all participants showed stronger cross-sex-typed \nstereotypes for activities and occupations than traits. Taken together, these results \nhave important implications for the development of both attractiveness \nstereotyping and gender stereotyping. Even in young children, attractiveness \nstereotypes consist of both sex-relevant (“beauty is good”) and sex-irrelevant \n(“beauty is sex-typed”) components, and these components include traits, \nactivities, and occupations. Moreover, gender stereotypes of female targets, at \nleast for adults and children in middle childhood, seem to depend on the \nattractiveness of the targets.
Author: Rebecca A. Hoss
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1914075636