Are the Beautiful Good in Hollywood? An Investigation of the Beauty-and-Goodness Stereotype on Film

Abstract

Physically attractive individuals are often viewed more favorably than unattractive people on dimensions that are weakly related or unrelated to physical looks, such as intelligence, sociability, and morality. Our study investigated the role of U.S. films in this "beauty-andgoodness" stereotype. In Study 1, we established that attractive characters were portrayed more favorably than unattractive characters on multiple dimensions (e.g., intelligence, friendliness) across a random sample from 5 decades of top-grossing films. The link between beauty and positive characteristics was stable across time periods, character sex, and characters' centrality to the plot. Study 2 established that exposure to highly stereotyped films can elicit stronger beauty-and-goodness stereotyping. Participants watching a highly biased film subsequently showed greater favoritism toward an attractive graduate school candidate (compared with ratings of an unattractive candidate) than participants viewing a less biased film.The quality of these films is completely beside the point, as they are only required to loyally express my personal worldview-punish the wicked, reward the attractive, and have as little to do with reality as possible.-Libby Gelman-Waxner (1997; italics added) Looks may not be everything, but physical good looks usually work in one's favor. Such is the conclusion of a quarter century's worth of research on physical attractiveness (PA) effects. Do the mass media encourage or reinforce the pervasive stereotypes that link beauty and positive traits?Much of the work on the beauty-and-goodness stereotype was triggered by the report of K. K. Dion, Berscheid, and Walster (1972), who found that "what is beautiful is good" in the eyes of many observers. In a variety of studies conducted since that time, physical good looks have been found to elicit many favorable reactions. Perhaps not surprisingly, people view physically attractive individuals as more desirable romantic partners (Suman & Kureshi, 1988). In addition, good-looking people are judged less likely to commit criminal acts (Saladin, Saper, & Breen, 1988), attractive defendants are more likely to receive lenient verdicts in mock trials (Castellow, Wuensch, & Moore, 1990), attractive infants are rated more favorably than less attractive ones (Karraker & Stern, 1990), good-looking children are judged to be more socially and academically capable tban less physically appealing ones (Kenealy, Frude, & Shaw, 1988), grade school children prefer attractive teachers to unattractive teachers (Hunsberger & Cavanagb, 1988), and perhaps more alarming, mock jurors recommend harsher punishments for defendants who have raped an attractive woman than those who raped an unattractive woman (Kanekar & Nazareth, 1988). The bias toward the physically attractive can also help explain why researchers have found in several studies that good-looking people tend to earn higher incomes than unattractive peers (Frieze, Olson, & Russell, 1991;Roszell, Kennedy, & Grabb, 1990;Umberson & Hughes...

Beauty is Good: The Appearance Culture, the Internalization of Appearance Ideals, and Dysfunctional Appearance Beliefs Among Tweens

“…Media content is replete with “beauty‐is‐good” messages. Smith, McIntosh, and Bazzini () concluded that attractive characters in Hollywood movies were presented as more favorable than unattractive characters. These messages also occur in content created for younger audiences.…”

Assessing Gender-Related Portrayals in Top-Grossing G-Rated Films

“…Only a few studies have examined gender representation in general-audience films. Smith et al (1999) analyzed characters in 100 topgrossing films between 1940 and 1989. Only a handful were rated G and analyses were not reported by rating.…”

Thin-Ideal Media and Women’s Body Dissatisfaction: Prevention using Downward Social Comparisons on Non-Appearance Dimensions

“…Unfortunately, however, these exhortations may not be effective because idealized media imagery is all-pervasive and because the media industry is more concerned about profit than about women's health and well-being (Shaw and Waller, as cited by Cattarin et al 2000;Smith et al 1999). Consequently, researchers now highlight the importance of teaching highrisk women strategies they can use to cope actively with idealized media imagery (Cattarin et al 2000;Hargreaves and Tiggemann 2002;Levine and Smolak 1998;Posavac et al 2001).…”