Page 140 - Essencials of Sociology

The Microsociological Perspective: Social Interaction in Everyday Life 113

Down-to-Earth Sociology

Beauty May Be Only Skin Deep, But Its Effects Go On
Forever: Stereotypes in Everyday Life

ark Snyder, a psychologist, wondered whether FIGURE 4.3 How Self-Fulfilling
stereotypes—our assumptions of what people are
Mlike—might be self-fulfilling. He came up with an Stereotypes Work
ingenious way to test this idea. Snyder (1993) gave college
men a Polaroid snapshot of a woman (supposedly taken
just moments before) and told each man that he would
be introduced to her after they talked on the telephone.
Actually, the photographs—showing either a pretty or a
homely woman—had been prepared before the experiment
began. The photo was not of the woman the men would
talk to.
Stereotypes came into play immediately. As Snyder gave
each man the photograph, he asked him what he thought
the woman would be like. The men who saw the photograph
of the attractive woman said that they expected to meet a
poised, humorous, outgoing woman. The men who had been
given a photo of the unattractive woman described her as
awkward, serious, and unsociable.
The men’s stereotypes influenced the way they spoke to
the women on the telephone, who did not know about the
photographs. The men who had seen the photograph of a
pretty woman were warm, friendly, and humorous. This, in
turn, affected the women they spoke to: They responded in
a warm, friendly, outgoing manner. And the men who had
seen the photograph of a homely woman? On the phone,
they were cold, reserved, and humorless, and the women
they spoke to became cool, reserved, and humorless. Keep in
mind that the women did not know that their looks had been
evaluated. Keep in mind, too, that the photos that the men
saw were not of these women. In short, stereotypes tend to
produce behaviors that match the stereotype. Figure 4.3
illustrates this principle.
Beauty might be only skin deep, but it has real conse-
quences. Higher earnings are one result. Bosses are more
Source: By the author.
willing to hire people whom they perceive as good-looking,
others are more willing to interact with them, and the good-
looking bring in more clients. The result is serious money. On
average, the more attractive earn between 10 and 15 percent
more than plain folks, about $200,000 over a lifetime (Judge
et al. 2009; Hamermesh 2011).
One more thing: Teacher evaluations follow the same
pattern. Students give higher ratings to their better-looking
teachers (Ponzo and Scoppa 2012).

For Your Consideration
In our research, we have barely tapped the surface of how
↑
stereotypes influence how we react to one another. Instead of
Based on the experiments summarized here, how do you think
women would modify their interactions if they were to meet these beauty, consider body type, gender, and race–ethnicity. How
two men? And if men were to meet these two men, would they do you think they affect those who do the stereotyping and
modify their interactions in the same way? those who are stereotyped?