Effects of Physical Attractiveness and Warmth on the Perception of Deviant Behavior

The impressions formed by male and female subjects of a female target were investigated as a function of her physical attractiveness, warmth, and behavior. Experimental sessions consisted of subjects viewing a videotape depicting one of the factorial conditions, and then responding to an impression questionnaire. Multivariate analysis revealed, as predicted, that subjects' trait ratings of the target were significantly more positive when she was attractive compared to unattractive, warm compared to cold, and behaved neutrally compared to deviantly. No effect on the subjects' degree of confidence in their ratings was observed. Two causal attribution measures were obtained: responses of subjects to a question designed to elicit explanation of the deviant behavior, and composite scores, extracted from statements on the likely causal and consequential nature of the target's actions. It was hypothesized that attributed motivations for deviancy would be more situationally oriented when the target was warm and attractive compared to when she was cold or unattractive. Results indicated, however, that moderately deviant behavior by a cold, attractive target was most often attributed, especially by the female subjects, to dispositional nature. At more extreme levels of deviancy, attractiveness did not affect attributed causality, although the degree of dispositional ratings did increase when the target was cold relative to warm.