Attractiveness and credibility

Lenka Šrámková

Abstract

Attractiveness is a widely discusses topic today, this paper focuses on attractiveness as a phenomenon of social psychology and especially on its influence on social contacts. An orientation typology of humans according to their appearance (twelve categories) was mapped out and the appropriate representatives of each category were found. The goal of the research was to state the order of these categories according to perceived attractiveness and ascribed credibility and to trace the relation between these two components. There were twenty-four portrait photographs (twelve men and twelve women). However, the main target of this study was to prepare the background for the planned research on the influence of the physical attractiveness of a person on the way he or she is viewed and evaluated by others, to be more specific, by traffic policemen as they often make decisions based on their „first impression“. Respondents were men, 20–35 years old, soon-to-be policemen and they did not personally know the people on the portraits. The results show correlation between the perceived attractiveness and ascribed credibility (r = 0,538 for men and r = 0,668 for women). On the basis of this pre-study, the portraits of persons evaluated as the most attractive and the least attractive were chosen for the following research.

(Fulltext in Czech)

Keywords

physical attractiveness, personal attractiveness, credibility, face attractiveness, police

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