Differences in Personality Attributions Toward Tattooed and Nontattooed Virtual Human Characters

Abstract

Individuals with body modifications, such as tattoos, have been shown to differ from nonmodified individuals in sensation-seeking personality characteristics and sociosexuality. This study examined possible differences in people’s attributions of those characteristics toward virtual human characters varying in body modification. Some 287 participants rated tattooed and nontattooed bodies of avatars on aspects of sensation seeking and number of previous sexual partners. Tattooed stimuli were rated as more experience, thrill, and adventure seeking as well as more likely to have a high number of previous sexual partners and as less inhibited when compared to nontattooed stimuli, and this was particularly true for male stimuli. It was concluded that people with body modifications, such as tattoos, are perceived differently compared to nontattooed individuals in terms of sensation seeking and previous sexual partner number, this being particularly true for men. Findings are discussed with reference to the evolutionary model of human sexual selection.

Facial Perceptions: Age's Influence on People's Perceptions of Facial Modifications

“…Even so, the higher ratings of modified faces lends support to the conclusion that body modifications are becoming increasingly prevalent and that such increased exposure contributes to more positive perceptions of tattooed individuals. 27 Moreover, in the context of the present study and previous studies, namely Swami and Furnham (2007) and Wohlrab et al (2009a) that suggest hair color, gender and number of body modifications are influential in social perceptions, it is interesting to note the consistency of results for middle aged adults (35-41 years) in comparison to the younger aged adults (18-29 years). Overall, there was little mean difference in middle-age participants' (age groups three and four) responses across conditions and traits.…”

“…6 Like faces, body modifications, particularly tattoos, signal and convey information about a person. 7 Generally, people associate certain personality characteristics with body modifications. Men with tattoos are perceived as attractively dominant, masculine and risk-takers.…”

“…Previous studies such as Porter et al (2008) and Wohlrab et al (2009a) suggest that such keenness of facial cues is intuitively built into humans for evolutionary purposes i.e. survival, mate selection.…”

What is professional attire today? A conjoint analysis of personal presentation attributes

“…Other research indicates that tattooing leads to negative perceptions involving such personality characteristics as lack of competence, character, social ability, honesty, intelligence, artistic ability, generosity, motivation, and responsibility (Degelman and Price, 2002;Martin and Dula, 2010;Seiter and Hatch, 2005;Wohlrab et al, 2009). Additionally, tattoos may have a "halo" effect (the tendency for an impression created in one area to influence one's opinion in another area, as noted in Reynolds, 2003) on perceptions of the other attributes.…”

The effect of situative and individual factors on the evaluation of body modified colleague

“…Ez a kockázatvállaló tendencia a tetoválás és piercinget viselők megítélésében is megfigyelhető. A tetovált személyeket izgalom és kalandkeresőknek, szexuálisan szabadabbnak, gátlástalannak (Wohlrab, Fink, Kappeler & Brewer, 2009), neurotikusabbnak, kevésbé lelkiismeretesnek, barátságosnak és nyitottnak ítélték meg a testmódosítást nem viselő személyek (Forbes, 2001). Tényleges különbséget azonban a személyiség öt nagy dimenziójában (Big Five) sem Forbes (2001) sem a magyar mintán történt kutatás nem írt le, illetve a magyar vizsgálat a drog és alkohol használat tekintetében nem mutatott eltérést tetovált és tetoválatlan csoportok között (Fallah, 2012).…”