Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Summary.-In a study of 318 Caucasian college srudents, obese persons and red-
headed men were seen as unattractive compared to the nonobese and other hair col-
ors. The obesity stereotype and the hal-color stereotype appear to be evaluated
separately with little interaction. The results imply that a stereotypic characteristic
like obesity, which is perceived as being under a person's control, may be evaluated
differently than a stereotypic characteristic independent of personal choice such as
hair color.
This paper investigates how two stereotypes interact. If the two stereo-
types compound each other, it would be expected that an obese redheaded
man would be seen as very unattractive while a nonobese blonde woman
would be perceived as very attractive. There should be a strong interaction
of obese-nonobese by hair color by sex. If the presence or absence of per-
sonal responsibility is a major factor in the negative stereotypes, then hair
color and obesity would be expected to be significant factors, but the inter-
action would be nonsignificant.
METHOD
Three hundred eighteen undergraduate junior and senior business ma-
jors from a midwestern state university participated in class without credit.
There were 180 men (57% of sample) and 138 women students. All were
Caucasians. Each student was given a resumi of a worker that described the
worker's position, personal characteristics, and medical history. The resumis
were identical except that sex, obese-nonobese, and hair color were manipu-
lated in a 2 x 2 x 4 factorial design. Hair colors included red, blond,
brown, and black. Consistent with other studies and the hair colors, all the
resumCs described Caucasians.
Each student was asked to evaluate the worker whose resumi he read
on several scales including an attractiveness scale which asked, "How attrac-
tive do you think this person is?" The students responded using a seven-
point scale anchored by "Not attractive" to "Very attractive."
RESULTS
The results for attractiveness are summarized in Table 1. There was a
marginal difference in attractiveness by sex. Women, in general, were de-
TABLE 1
OF VARIANCE
ANALYSIS OF A ~ A C T I V E N ERATINGS
SS
Source Over-all Analysis Red Hair Removed
df MS F df MS F
Sex Student 6,) 1 3.55 2.54 1 3.61 2.61
Sex Worker 6,) 1 5.34 3.82* 1 0.36 0.26
Obesity ( 0 ) 1 383.41 274.357 1 300.81 217.96t
Hair Color (H) 3 6.52 4.67t 2 0.29 0.21
Ss Sw 1 0.22 0.16 1 0.11 0.08
S, x 0 1 0.66 0.47 1 1.80 1.30
S, x H 3 1.33 0.95 2 1.82 1.32
S, x 0 1 12.42 8.897 1 2.01 1.46
S, x H 3 2.99 2.14 2 0.76 0.55
O x H 3 1.95 1.40 2 2.36 1.71
S, x S, x 0 1 0.50 0.36 1 1.24 0.90
S, x S, x H 3 0.06 0.05 2 0.04 0.03
S , x O x H 3 1.57 1.12 2 1.92 1.39
S , x O x H 3 4.22 3.02' 2 1.31 0.95
S,xS,xOxH 3 1.21 0.87 2 1.33 0.96
Residual 286 1.40 213 1.38
*p . 0 5 . t p < .01.
scribed as more attractive than men (women: 3.85, SE: 0.14; men: 3.58, SE:
0.12). Obese workers were seen as much less attractive than nonobese work-
ATTRACTIVENESS: OBESITY, HAIR COLOR 201
ers (obese: 2.61, SE: 0.10; nonobese: 4.81, SE: 0.10). There was a signifi-
cant difference in attractiveness by hair color. Redheads were given the
lowest scores and blondes the highest (red: 3.31, SE: 0.18; blonde: 3.96, SE:
0.20; brown: 3.83, SE: 0.18; black: 3.82, SE: 0.18). Hair color by obese-
nonobese was not significant. Sex by obese-nonobese was significant as well
as the three-way interaction of sex by obese-nonobese by hair color. Both
significant interactions are a result of the low evaluation of redhaired men
as can be seen in Table 2 and by the fact that, if red hair is removed from
the analysis, d significant effects disappear except obese-nonobese.
TABLE 2
MEANA ~ A C T I V E N ERATINGS
SS AND STANDARDERRORS(SE) FOR
NONOBESE-OBESE BY SEXBY HAIR COLOR
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