Page 391 - The Social Animal

Liking, Loving, and Interpersonal Sensitivity 373

having. This finding emerges from a subsequent experiment by
35
Karen Dion. Dion asked several women to examine reports of
rather severe classroom disturbances, apparently written by a teacher.
Attached to each report was a photo of the child who was said to
have initiated the disturbance. In some instances, the photo was that
of an attractive boy or girl; in others, the photo was that of a less at-
tractive boy or girl. The women tended to place more blame on the
less attractive children and to infer that this incident was typical of
their everyday behavior. When the child was pictured as good-look-
ing, however, they tended to excuse the disruptive behavior. As one
of the women put it, “She plays well with everyone, but like anyone
else, a bad day can occur. Her cruelty . . . need not be taken seri-
ously.” When an unattractive girl was pictured as the culprit in ex-
actly the same situation described in exactly the same way, a typical
respondent said, “I think the child would be quite bratty and would
probably be a problem to teachers. She would probably try to pick a
fight with other children her own age. . . . All in all, she would be
a real problem.” Thus, it seems that we tend to give attractive chil-
dren the benefit of the doubt. Their misbehaviors are seen as forgiv-
able aberrations caused by special aspects of the situation, other
people, or an unfortunate accident. Less attractive children, on the
other hand, are not let off the hook so easily; their misdeeds are at-
tributed internally, to stable negative personality dispositions.
It probably won’t surprise anyone to learn that good looks play
an important role among early adolescents, as well as in children and
adults. For example, Richard Lerner and his colleagues found that
over the course of the school year, 6th-graders tended to rate their
attractive classmates as being more competent than their less attrac-
36
tive classmates. Moreover, in that study, the teachers did the same
thing. Speaking of teachers, Bruce Hunsberger and Brenda Ca-
vanagh found that 6th-graders also rated good-looking teachers as
nicer, happier, less punitive, and more effective than their less attrac-
tive counterparts. 37
Beauty has important consequences in the business world, as
well. Irene Frieze and her associates rated the attractiveness of more
than 700 young adults and tracked their employment histories, start-
ing just after they attained masters degrees in business administra-
38
tion and continuing for 10 years. The results were clear. Handsome
men got higher starting salaries, and this benefit of their good looks