Kononov Natalia, Ein-Gar Danit
Coller School of Management, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Br J Soc Psychol. 2025 Apr;64(2):e12800. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12800. Epub 2024 Sep 16.
Ten studies (N = 4192) demonstrated that individuals depicted as prosocial were judged to be more physically beautiful. This evaluation of prosocial individuals as more beautiful is influenced by a motivation to be associated with prosocial others. This phenomenon was observed in real-world settings (Study 1) and applied to both men and women, both as targets and observers (Studies 2a-2b). The effect persisted in scenarios where participants imagined the target without any visual aid (Study 2c) and extended beyond metaphorical interpretations of beauty (Study 3). The effect weakened when prosocial behaviour was an isolated incident, not indicative of the target's prosocial personality (Study 4). The influence of prosociality on beauty evaluations surpassed that of other positive traits such as intelligence or humour (Study 5) and remained significant despite physical imperfections in the target's appearance (Study 6). The effect diminished in situations where forming a relationship was not feasible, thus supporting the motivated cognition rationale (Studies 7-8). These findings highlight the substantial role of prosocial behaviour in influencing evaluations of physical beauty, a crucial element in social interactions and relationship formation, often outweighing other attributes typically linked to physical appearance evaluation.
十项研究（N = 4192）表明，被描绘为亲社会的个体被认为在外表上更具吸引力。将亲社会个体评价为更具吸引力，受到与亲社会他人建立联系的动机的影响。这一现象在现实世界场景中得到了观察（研究1），并且在作为目标对象和观察者的男性和女性身上都得到了应用（研究2a - 2b）。当参与者在没有任何视觉辅助的情况下想象目标对象时，这种效应依然存在（研究2c），并且超出了对美的隐喻性解释（研究3）。当亲社会行为是一个孤立事件，并不表明目标对象的亲社会人格时，这种效应会减弱（研究4）。亲社会行为对美丑评价的影响超过了其他积极特质，如智力或幽默（研究5），并且尽管目标对象的外表存在身体缺陷，这种影响仍然显著（研究6）。在无法建立关系的情况下，这种效应会减弱，从而支持了动机性认知理论（研究7 - 8）。这些发现凸显了亲社会行为在影响外表美丑评价方面的重要作用，这是社会互动和关系形成中的一个关键因素，其重要性往往超过了通常与外表评价相关的其他属性。
