Effect of physical appearance on evaluation of “goodness” or “badness” in young children

An individual's appearance and actions are used in social evaluation. However, few studies have examined which of these two is prioritized by children when making social evaluations. This study aimed to investigate how action and appearance influence social evaluation. Based on previous findings, we created hand-drawn characters that were either good-looking or bad-looking, and showed the pictures to Japanese preschoolers (N = 111). Children aged four and older evaluated the characters as "good" or "bad" based on physical appearance. Then, the children observed a good-looking character behaving badly and vice versa to determine whether appearance or action had a greater influence on social evaluation. While three- to six-year-olds appropriately judged each action as right or wrong, six-year-olds alone evaluated agents as "good" or "bad" based on actions without being distracted by appearance. Thus, appearance may interfere with social evaluation among younger children but exerts less influence when children's understanding of moral actions deepens. Future studies evaluating different types of appearances can further clarify the impact of appearance on social evaluation.