Year: 2016
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Perceptions of intelligence are strongly related to attractiveness and have a \nsignificant impact on first impressions. The introductory chapters (1 – 3) provide an \noverview of the literature on attractiveness, halo effects, and intelligence, while the \nexperimental chapters (4 – 6) explore perceptions of cues to intelligence beyond \nattractiveness, individual differences in the susceptibility to the halo, and the accuracy of \nperceptions of competence. \n \nChapter 4 investigated the malleable facial cues of eyelid-openness and mouth \ncurvature and their influence on perceived intelligence. Attractiveness partially mediated \nintelligence impression, but effects of eyelid-openness and subtle smiling enhanced \nintelligence ratings independent of attractiveness. These effects were observed and \nreplicated in between individual (cross-sectional) studies of natural images of adult faces, \nchild faces, through digital manipulation of individual cues in the same faces, and in a \nwithin individual sleep-restricted sample. Chapter 5 investigated the relationship between \nperceived intelligence and attractiveness by exploring whether a raters’ own intelligence \nmay be related to a stronger endorsement of the perceived intelligence-attractiveness halo. \nThe correlation between ratings of the perceived intelligence and attractiveness was found \nto be stronger for participants who scored higher on an intelligence test than participants \nwith lower intelligence test scores. Chapter 6 investigated the limiting effects of \nattractiveness on perceptions of competence. When statistically controlling for the \nattractiveness halo, academic performance could be predicted from judgments of \nconscientiousness but not from ratings of intelligence. \n \nThus this thesis demonstrates that malleable facial cues can influence perceptions \nof intelligence independent of attractiveness, identifies an individual difference that \ninfluences endorsement of the intelligence-attractiveness halo, and shows the limiting \neffects of the attractiveness halo on potentially accurate perceptions of academic \nperformance. Collectively these findings provide evidence of the powerful influence of \nattractiveness on perceptions of intelligence; such work is necessary if we are to mitigate \nsuch bias.
Author: Sean N. Talamas
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2916494477