Perceptions of intelligence and the attractiveness halo
Abstract
Perceptions of intelligence are strongly related to attractiveness and have a
significant impact on first impressions. The introductory chapters (1 – 3) provide an
overview of the literature on attractiveness, halo effects, and intelligence, while the
experimental chapters (4 – 6) explore perceptions of cues to intelligence beyond
attractiveness, individual differences in the susceptibility to the halo, and the accuracy of
perceptions of competence.
Chapter 4 investigated the malleable facial cues of eyelid-openness and mouth
curvature and their influence on perceived intelligence. Attractiveness partially mediated
intelligence impression, but effects of eyelid-openness and subtle smiling enhanced
intelligence ratings independent of attractiveness. These effects were observed and
replicated in between individual (cross-sectional) studies of natural images of adult faces,
child faces, through digital manipulation of individual cues in the same faces, and in a
within individual sleep-restricted sample. Chapter 5 investigated the relationship between
perceived intelligence and attractiveness by exploring whether a raters’ own intelligence
may be related to a stronger endorsement of the perceived intelligence-attractiveness halo.
The correlation between ratings of the perceived intelligence and attractiveness was found
to be stronger for participants who scored higher on an intelligence test than participants
with lower intelligence test scores. Chapter 6 investigated the limiting effects of
attractiveness on perceptions of competence. When statistically controlling for the
attractiveness halo, academic performance could be predicted from judgments of
conscientiousness but not from ratings of intelligence.
Thus this thesis demonstrates that malleable facial cues can influence perceptions
of intelligence independent of attractiveness, identifies an individual difference that
influences endorsement of the intelligence-attractiveness halo, and shows the limiting
effects of the attractiveness halo on potentially accurate perceptions of academic
performance. Collectively these findings provide evidence of the powerful influence of
attractiveness on perceptions of intelligence; such work is necessary if we are to mitigate
such bias.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.