Question: Are more attractive [more physically attractive] people more likely to get ahead in work and life than people less attractive [less physically attractive]?

Answer (by Gordon Patzer): Yes, as a robust body of research findings reveal and document. And these research findings are not unique to the United States or any one part of the world. They come from research conducted by a rather large group of researchers literally around the world and identified or representing a large diverse range of disciplines.

Question: When did this research begin?

Answer (by Gordon Patzer): It is reasonable to identify the mid-1960s as the start of scientific research explicitly investigating physical attractiveness phenomenon. It was in that time period that the a project investigating social interactions as a function of body characteristics defined as physical deformities was reported in a book published in 1963 by E. Goffman titled, Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identify.

However, psychologists Judson Mills and Elliot Aronson performed probably the first empirical inquiry into physical attractiveness phenomenon as reported and published in 1965. That publication was an article titled "Opinion Change as a Function of the Communicator's Attractiveness and Desire to Influence" and the prestigious scholarly journal titled Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published it.

Question: Are you saying there was no research earlier about PA in regard to PAP?

Answer (by Gordon Patzer): Researchers of one form or another have studied in one or another physical attractiveness history. However, those studies were more works of art or expression of art or maybe scholarly comment in regard to PAP than actual empirical research into PAP. For example, scientific comment about one aspect of PA and PAP (that being height) arose in 1927 as epitomized by a prominent sociologist, who after analyzing many cultures determined the "correlation of tall stature with the upper social classes." Interestingly, this observation or scientific comment back then holds true today and contemporary scientific research has numerous times verified such. In regard to this same area, going back much farther, wall paintings in ancient Egypt reflected status by height with the more important the person the taller the figure. Anthropologists find prehistoric tombs that have individual skeletons of taller height in elegant crypts but multiple skeletons of shorter height in common graves. Just as discriminatory are linguistic patterns that echo the social messages of height preference.

Question: Why do you think research and research methods now considered central to the scientific core of knowledge about PAP were not performed earlier than the mid-1960s?

Answer (by Gordon Patzer): As I stated, the start of this specific research can be reasonable identified in the 1960s and even somewhat slower to develop was study pertaining to the potential differences between individuals of lower and higher physical attractiveness. The study that I noted above as published in 1965 investigated the relationship between changes in opinion held by a receiver exposed to a persuasive message as a function of the PA of the communicator of that message. And, I think the best answer that I can give to your question is that I agree with a more general explanation put forth by one of those co-authors back then (Elliot Aronson). Although he laces his explanation in the context of female-male gender vocabulary usage common at that time, his explanation can be generalized to both males and females as research has since documented the pertinence of physical attractiveness phenomenon to both genders. In his article published in 1969 title "Some Antecedents of Interpersonal Attraction," Arson states:

• "...it is difficult to be certain why the effects of physical beauty [physical attractiveness] have not been studied more systematically. It may be that, at some level, we would hate to find evidence indicating that beautiful women [people] are liked better than homely women [people are liked] — somehow this seems undemocratic. In a democracy, we like to feel that with hard work and a good deal of motivation, a person can accomplish almost anything. But, alas (most of us believe), hard work cannot make an ugly woman [person] beautiful. Because of this suspicion, perhaps most social psychologists implicitly would prefer to believe that beauty [physical attractiveness] is, indeed, only skin-deep — and avoid the investigation of its social impact for fear that they might learn otherwise."

Question: Can you tell me this person, Elliot Aronson? Who is he or was he?

Answer (by Gordon Patzer): I am glad you asked question. As well as answering your question it gives the opportunity to boast a bit, or toot-my-own horn some.

First, Elliot Aronson received his Ph.D. from Stanford University and as well as being a pioneering researcher in regard to PAP, during his career he achieved great recognitions and respect within the field of psychology. For example, he is the only person to whom the American Psychological Association has awarded all three of its highest intellectual recognitions: distinguished writing, distinguished teaching, and distinguished research. The research award, designated Distinguished Scientific Contribution, is the highest recognition for psychologists for a lifetime of research achievements. Moreover, the American Psychological Association recognized Dr. Aronson in 2002 as "among the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th Century."

Second, boasting a bit on my part, as a footnote, permit me to mention his direct relation to my earlier work in this area. I conducted my first formal research concerning PA in 1973 when at which there was only a handful of such scholarly published research articles. And, about 20 years after Elliot Aronson published his explanation in 1969 for the delay of scientific research in regard to the PAP topic, he served formally as the editor for my first book published in 1985 within the Plenum Press series titled, Perspectives in Social Psychology.

Question: Who does this type of research [research in direct regard to PAP]?

Answer (by Gordon Patzer): ): Researchers in many scientific fields continue, today and expectedly in the future, to conduct research to progress knowledge about PAP. Fields of scientific study pertinent to understanding physical attractiveness phenomenon have expanded far beyond origins in the mid-1960s in social psychology. Relevant research to PAP now represent disciplines from anthropology to zoology, as well as throughout the scores of sub-disciplines identified with psychology and sociology. Interestingly, while knowledge about physical attractiveness and related phenomenon has increased dramatically, public displays of pursuits for higher PA also have increased dramatically. At the same time, the principles of PAP have remained the same. PA continues to serve as an informational cue, from which extensive information is inferred that triggers assumptions, expectations, attitudes, and behaviors, and that cause pervasive and powerful effects/ consequences that overwhelmingly are more favorable for people whose appearance is of higher physical attractiveness and less favorable for people whose appearance is of lower physical attractiveness.

Question: Will research continue to be done concerning PAP or has it already stopped?

Answer (by Gordon Patzer): No doubt, research into and about PAP has increased significantly since its start in the mid-1960's, continues strong and active today, and can be anticipated to remain or accelerate its pace far into the future. Taking note at approximately twenty-year intervals since the mid-1960s, the population at large, as well as the population of related scientific researchers, has demonstrated expanding interest in PA and responsiveness to PAP. From mid-1960s to mid-1980s, interest increased substantially within both these populations (general public and scientific/scholarly researchers). During the next twenty-years to midway between 2000 and 2010, interest and actions accelerated immensely, especially in pursuits to enhance a person’s PA. Through the next twenty-year interval through approximately 2030, high levels of interest in PA and corresponding levels of responsiveness to PAP will continue with certainty along with corresponding research investigations.

Question: What, in a nutshell, is the "physical attractiveness" phenomenon [PAP]?

Answer (by Gordon Patzer):

• Physical Attractiveness Phenomenon can be summarized as:


• Lookism or treating people in ways biased by their level of physical attractiveness; with benefits to individuals higher in physical attractiveness and detriments to individuals lower in physical attractiveness.
• However discomforting the related facts, the reality is that what you look like--or, more important, how your looks are perceived, by others and by yourself--shapes your life in dozens of subtle and not so subtle ways from cradle to grave.


• Examples…What your look like—or more important, how others perceive your looks—shapes your life in life in dozens of (often subtle) ways from cradle to grave.


• PA affects the way nurses treat newborns in the same way that it shapes the manner in which parents act and react with their children.
• PA influences a child's self-image and becomes a significant factor in how teachers evaluate, assist and grade pupils from kindergarten to graduate school.
• It's a key factor in finding and keeping mates and close friends, in choosing an occupation and in finding or keeping a job and in defining the limits of an individual’s success in their chosen field.
• PA affects who gets hired, subsequent promotions and earnings, as well as who gets elected to political offices.
• PA effects permeate such supposedly neutral arenas as courtrooms and elections. Juries, for example, tend to attach more credence to the arguments of a winsome attorney than to that of his or her less enticing counterpart. Each witness' testimony is processes through, often unconsciously, through jurors’ perceptions of their PA and anyone accused of a crime is judged as much on their personal PA as on the facts introduced to a jury.