The winter months are upon us, for some this could mean you are constantly chilly, for others maybe a state of depression, but, for everyone in State College this means they are once again their palest self. This, along with any other reason to evoke self lothe on your appearance, leads many to believe they are unattractive to the opposing sex. Can that really be true, that just because you believe you are viewed as ugly people are not attracted to you? Or does a person’s personality mean more than their nose and waist size?

There is no denying the automatic sense of attraction a person feels when a very ‘hot’ person of the opposite sex walks by them. Although, research has found that this automatic attraction can be easily swayed by the person’s personality. Professor Viren Swami, who is now a professor of social Psychology at the Anglia Ruskin University worked with his team at the University of Westminster as well as scientist at the British Psychological Society on his study More than just skin deep? Personality information influences men’s ratings of the attractiveness of women’s body sizes. Swami took 2,157 college aged males and gave them a series of women to rate based on their picture, age, body mass index and personality traits. As well as a control group that was only given a picture with an age and body mass index of females. The body mass index of the females varied from extremely skinny to extremely overweight. The personality traits of women varied between being positive and negative for the women.

Swami found that males in the control group that lacked personality traits all had an excessively similar body image that they found most attractive and rated the highest. Although, males that were also provided with women’s personality traits had remarkably varying body sizes and appearance. Even the women with the body image that the males found most attractive received poor ratings if they had a negative personality. Swami’s results show that personality is valued greater than image and attractiveness.

As I looked though Swami’s research I grew more frustrated that his paper lacked definite definitions of positive and negative personalities. Yes, most people in this world see kindness, light-heartedness and agreeableness as positive qualities to possess. Although, when you go deeper and question how people feel about how cheerful or passionate a person is there are varying opinions that different males would have, and then go on to rate different females this way.  I feel that if the study only provided very general personality traits to define the women then the research that Swami found is less valuable. I say this because it is obvious the mostly everyone will favor the personality traits that public opinion admires and stay away from the obvious negative traits. If this generalization is true for the study Swami’s results become more obvious and less credible.

Swami’s study constantly made me think back to the class we explored if males were toxic.  I know that we discussed that there was a sexual arms race between male Bean weevils  to poison each others sperm in a female, but there is still a connection to sexual arms races in humans. This “sexual arms race” of humans is leading both males and females to believe it is necessary to find a ‘hot’ person of the opposite sex and claim them, whether that be for the night, year, or lifetime. Like we said in class this can be very bad for species and is a powerful force that is leading people to question how attractive they are to others.

There was research done prior to Swami’s study that helps to support his results. The Department of Psychology from the State University of New York, Stony Brook and Monmouth University join together for the study Personality goes a long way: The malleability of opposite-sex physical attractiveness. Professor Gary W. Lewandowski and Arthur Aron had 56 females and 22 males rate photos of the opposite sex, distract their mind from the task and then go back and rate the photos again, although this time with that person’s defining characteristic under the photo. When the photos included personality traits the ratings of the opposite sex once again changed significantly.  In this study the researchers compared their results to a “model in which desirability of the target’s personality leads to greater desirability as a friend, leading to greater desirability as a dating partner.” This shows that a person can so quickly be transformed in one’s mind as being attractive with a nice body and face to becoming distasteful with negative personality traits.  

I feel that with two studies that support each other’s findings, additional studies available to me as well as the overplayed 21st century ideal that it is on the inside that really counts the idea of being ugly should be fading away. Although it isn’t, that is why I believe that this study is too broad to cover all male and female beliefs of attraction. It is similar to the idea of marrying for money. Usually a person that has a greater desire for money does not consider personality because they are only concerned about the money. The same could be said for a person that is only in search for a spouse that is “hot”, they disregard a person’s personality traits. For a future study I think that researchers should take into account participants family background, geographic location and socio-economic status.  This way a study will be able to search for correlations in certain locations, with a specific upbringing that affects what a person looks for in a friend and dating partner.

If after reading my blog you still have concerns about your appearance and how it is going to affect you in the fraternity house this weekend I suggest listening to Christina Aguilar when she says “you are beautiful no matter what they say.” My research has found that there is a greater benefit in developing your personality and letting it guide you to being the person you want to be, rather than spending money, time and energy on an appearance that many will glance over.