# ORIGINS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF APPEARANCE-BASED STEREOTYPES

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN · 1994 · $157,867

## Abstract

Data on stereotypes and behavioral expectations associated with facial
attractiveness provide one of the most consistent, pervasive, and robust
findings in developmental and social psychology.  Both adults and children
prefer attractive over unattractive individuals: They attribute positive
qualities and abilities to attractive individuals, negative ones to
unattractive individuals, and they behave differently toward attractive and
unattractive persons.  It has long been assumed that these preferences for
attractiveness were gradually learned and were evident only after years of
exposure to the media and/or socialization agents.  In contrast, our work
reveals that even young infants detect and prefer attractive over
unattractive faces.

This preference for an attractive appearance affects the development of
children both as perceivers of others and as the perceived.  The effects of
such preferences of others on children are direct: The treatment and
responsiveness of others are influenced by the attractiveness of the child.
The effects on children as perceivers are less obvious but will also affect
the social environment in important ways: Children's perception of and
preference for attractiveness in others will influence their selection of
social interaction partners.  These preferences, then, form a strategic
component in children's active construction of their social world.

The research plan has two major goals.  The first is to continue our
research on infants' preferences for attractive faces by investigating the
cross-cultural generality of these preferences and by investigating whether
these preferences are innate or acquired.  The second goal is to understand
the functional significance of appearance -based information by determining
what cues are conveyed by faces differing in levels of attractiveness.  It
is proposed that information about age, gender, health, affective state,
and prototypicality is differentially conveyed to perceivers by attractive
and unattractive faces.  These facially-based signals are proposed to have
important consequences for social interaction.

The research will lead to new theoretical accounts of the mechanisms of
development of social stereotypes based on facial appearance by
investigating whether preferences for attractive faces are innate or are
acquired through the very early cognitive abstraction of faces.  The
research will therefore contribute to our knowledge of early infant social
perception.  By learning why facial attractiveness is preferred by infants,
children, and adults alike, we will be able to specify how attractiveness
might influence socialization and social interaction.  These studies will
therefore lead to new explanations of the functional significance of
appearance-based stereotypes.  Finally, the research is designed to have
applied implications for parenting, child abuse, sex-role socialization,
and the mental and physical health of LD and ADD children.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 2198217
- **Project number:** 5R01HD021332-09
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
- **SAM.gov UEI:** V6AFQPN18437
- **Principal Investigator:** JUDITH H LANGLOIS
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1994
- **Award amount:** $157,867
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1986-09-01 → 1996-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2198217

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 2198217, ORIGINS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF APPEARANCE-BASED STEREOTYPES (5R01HD021332-09). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/2198217. Licensed CC0.

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