Beautiful is good: Evidence that the physically attractive are more socially skillful

Abstract

The possibility that the so-called physical attractiveness stereotype may contain a "kernel of truth" was investigated in a study where college students interacted with opposite sex partners whom they could not see. Each student engaged in three telephone conversations and rated their telephone partners for social skill, anxiety, liking, and desirability for future interaction, and were themselves subsequently rated for physical attractiveness by three independent observers. As hypothesized, the more physically attractive students were rated by their telephone partners as more socially skillful and more likable than their less attractive counterparts.