A group's physical attractiveness is greater than the average attractiveness of its members: the group attractiveness effect

Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin
Yvette van OschJob van Wolferen

Abstract

We tested whether the perceived physical attractiveness of a group is greater than the average attractiveness of its members. In nine studies, we find evidence for the so-called group attractiveness effect (GA-effect), using female, male, and mixed-gender groups, indicating that group impressions of physical attractiveness are more positive than the average ratings of the group members. A meta-analysis on 33 comparisons reveals that the effect is medium to large (Cohen's d = 0.60) and moderated by group size. We explored two explanations for the GA-effect: (a) selective attention to attractive group members, and (b) the Gestalt principle of similarity. The results of our studies are in favor of the selective attention account: People selectively attend to the most attractive members of a group and their attractiveness has a greater influence on the evaluation of the group.

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Citations

Feb 9, 2018·Scientific Reports·Daniel J CarragherMichael E R Nicholls
Sep 12, 2017·Annual Review of Psychology·David Whitney, Allison Yamanashi Leib
Aug 15, 2018·Journal of Vision·Anna X Luo, Guomei Zhou
Jun 30, 2019·Scientific Reports·Daniel J CarragherMike E R Nicholls
Oct 13, 2020·Frontiers in Psychology·Yatian LeiZuye Tian
Mar 21, 2021·British Journal of Psychology·Daniel J CarragherMichael E R Nicholls
May 14, 2021·Frontiers in Psychology·Claude MessnerPatrick Stefan Höhener

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