Stereotypical Beliefs about Appearance - Essay Example

Influence of Physical Appearance on People’s Response School The tendency of being attentive about physical appearance has been essential among people ever since they started living in society. From ancient times people have been dressing trying to make themselves as attractive as possible because they knew that appearance played crucial role in social life. Physical appearance is one of those important things in communication that influences people’s attitude to others. So it often depends on physical appearance whether people adore you or will not even start talking to you. The importance of physical appearance is natural because human beings tend to judge others and the very first thing they begin judging with is physical appearance. Thus, appearance is frequently engaged with different kinds of prejudice including association of a person with certain social class according to the clothes one wears to racial and ethnical discrimination. Explorations on the matter of racial prejudice revealed that people different from white-skin race usually get judged by “whites” on unconscious level (Riddleberger & Motz 1997). Even though modern society is liberal and more tolerant than it was 30 years ago, still racial prejudice exists but probably on more hidden levels of human minds. The point is that a person identifies another person’s belonging to a certain social group on the unconscious, instinctive level. When people see someone different from tem their instincts start working to protect themselves from “strangers”, so they consider the different person as a potential hazard even though they don’t even realize what hazardous could be in the person. Despite we are living in open-minded society, it must take a while for our natural instincts to get changed, because obviously inner stimuli are more difficult to be transformed by outside conditions than, for instance, those that humans learn during lifetime. Thus, it becomes clear that physical appearance forms certain stereotypes in society. In some situations it can concern prejudice about human personalities or social and cultural level, but the most common stereotypes concerning the matter are about physical attractiveness and its social value. Physical attractiveness influences many factors of social life including probability to be accepted for a job or create a family. Psychosocial researches showed that people who are considered to be physically attractive, according to current criteria of beauty, have more chances to become popular in their communities and the entire society, than those who don’t have exceptionally beautiful physical traits (Kleck et.al. 1974). The statement becomes even more relevant in nowadays society where social media is gaining more influence and dictates the criteria of appropriateness, so physical attractiveness often increases a person’s social status. Sociological explorations show that people who have normal height, weight and facial features are more likely to be accepted for a job position. Thus, it turns out that being attractive is even economically profitable (Seng Loh 1993). It concerns all kinds of jobs that require involvement in human communication including office jobs and positions of service sector. The tendency shows that people indeed admit that appearance plays crucial role notwithstanding that often they may not proclaim it out loud. Psychologists claim that stereotypical beliefs about appearance influence human decision-making. Studies of business psychology found out that appearance of business realm workers (especially managers) often influences decision-making of clients. Thus, a good-looking manager can raise a firm’s income, that’s why selection of business employees is rather strict (Klassen et.al. 1993). For instance, a manager who has problems with obesity has less chances to sell his product than the one who looks fit even though the obese one might have more advanced communicational skills. The same stereotypical beliefs created the dress-code tradition within the realm of business. As far as dress-code is a cultural and distinctive feature of business workers, it also has certain estimation criteria that mean something in business discourse and define people’s attitude to others. For example, a manager that wears a chip suit and is negligent in his dress is considered to be not trustworthy and unlikely will make a deal with serious partner (Klassen et.al. 1993, p.182). Another realm that clearly describes connection between human appearance and social relations is politics. Researches on political candidate evaluation state that voters evaluate physically attractive candidates more favorably than unattractive ones. The most vivid example of the tendency is when John F. Kennedy defeated Richard M. Nixon in 1960 presidential election (Hart et.al. 2011). Psychologists claim that the decisive factor in Kennedy’s victory in the election was attractiveness of him and his wife, that’s why he seemed more trustworthy and well looking for American citizens. In fact, to a large extend the craft of political strategy depends on how a political candidate can present himself because significant oratorical skills and good-looking solid appearance are crucial for politics. In his book The Fall of Public Man Richard Sennett points out an interesting observation about modern society and people’s political preferences (1977). He claims that people tend to interpret political candidates mixing up different aspects of their personalities. For instance, when people consider a handsome candidate for senate they can forgive certain mistakes concerning his political activity that he has made, just because he has an attractive appearance. Thus, in such situations human appearance and attractiveness become a kind of marketing strategy which is supposed to help people in selling products and gaining power and fame. Social standards of beauty and attractiveness often form certain criteria of what should people look like to be relevant in society. Orienting on the criteria people try to fit their images to the standards. Some of them manage to create their own styles, so they might even dictate a fashion, which is mostly the prerogative of celebrities. But often modern beauty standards make people obsessed with their bodies and even provoke them into extreme measures. For instance, the recent growth of amount of anorexic women is the consequence of people’s wrong interpretation of beauty standards. It turns out that as far as human obsession about appearance can even lead to mental diseases like anorexia nervosa (Morris & Twaddle 2007) appearance indeed is very important factor of public opinion. The social value of human appearance is being widely studied in modern psychological clinic practice. Psychologists claim that the obsession with appearance has become a kind of mental disease which can be called body image disorder and in a varying degree is happened to appear almost in every person (Stout & Frame 2004). The scientists assert that people are so concerned about their appearance and what others think about their bodies that sometimes their interpretations of norms become twisted up. For instance, women can start over exercising and drink proteins in order to gain muscles, so in some time they look more like men, or they can fall back on plastic surgery and even start losing weight to death. Men also get bombarded by social media images of ideal man and try to make their bodies alike to the standard (Stout & Frame 2004). The problems of such approach are multiple. First of all, people often can do harm to their bodies and health, they risk to over strive in their wishes and get an inverse effect becoming ugly victims of beauty. Secondly, when physical appearance becomes an abnormal object of social obsession the tendency reveals social degradation of true values. Thus, physical appearance is one of those essential factors that influence people’s attitude to others. Human image can create certain opinion and become either ticket or barrier to success. The importance of appearance factor can be estimated by modern trends of beauty and people’s obsession with their bodies. References Riddleberger, A.B. and Motz, A.B. (1997). “Prejudice and Perception”. American Journal of Sociology, 103 (2), 498-503. Kleck, R.E., Richardson, S.A., and Ronald, L. (1974). “Physical Appearance Cues and Interpersonal Attraction in Children”. Child development, 45(2), 305-310. Seng Loh, E. (1993). “The Economic Effects of Physical Appearance”. Social Science Quarterly, 74(2), 420-438. Klassen, M.L., Jasper, C.R., and Harris, R.J. (1993). “The Role of Physical Appearance in Managerial Decisions”. Journal of Business and Psychology, 8(2), 181-198. Hart, W., Ottati, V.C., and Krumdick, N.D. (2011). “Physical Attractiveness and Candidate Evaluation: A Model of Correction”. Political Psychology, 32(2), 181-203. Stout, E. J, and Wiggins Frame, M. (2004). “Body Image Disorder in Adolescent Males: Strategies for School Counselors”. Professional School Counseling, 8(2), 176-181. Morris, J. and Twaddle, S. (2007). “Anorexia Nervosa”. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 334(7599), 894-898. Sennett, R. (1977). The Fall of Public Man. London: Cambridge University Press. Read More