Kajsa Hansson
Postdoctoral fellow
The beauty of prosocial behavior : The bi-directional link between attractiveness and prosocial behavior
Author
Summary, in English
This study explores the bi-directional relationship between attractiveness and prosocial behavior. While it is known that we often expect attractive people to act more prosocial, this research also examines how someone's actions can affect how attractive we perceive them to be. In a pre-registered incentivized behavioral experiment (n = 250), using avatar pictures representative of previous players in a dictator game, we asked participants (i) about their belief how prosocial the previous players behaved based solely on their avatars, which were either attractive or not, and (ii) to judge the avatars' attractiveness after learning whether their actions were prosocial or selfish. As anticipated, participants expected attractive avatars to behave more prosocially. More importantly, our study identified a robust causal effect of prosocial behavior on perceived attractiveness. Furthermore, those who already believed attractive people are more likely to be prosocial also judged the prosocial avatars as more attractive than those who were selfish. Our study highlights a dynamic, bi-directional relationship between attractiveness and behavior, offering a novel perspective on the intricate interplay of attractiveness, perception, and behavior in social contexts.
Department/s
- LU Profile Area: Natural and Artificial Cognition
- Department of Political Science
Publishing year
2024-03
Language
English
Pages
305-317
Publication/Series
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Volume
219
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Business Administration
Keywords
- Beauty premium
- Beauty-is-good-stereotype
- Pre-registered experiment
- Prosocial behavior
- Selfish behavior
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0167-2681