Everybody loves beauty? The moderated effect of body attractiveness among young Koreans

Physical attractiveness affects people’s lives in numerous ways. This study examined the effect of a woman’s body attractiveness on favorability perception based on the ‘beauty-is-good’ stereotype in the context of South Korea. Body attractiveness was operationalized using tallness in Study 1 and slimness in Study 2. The two studies tested the effect of a woman’s body attractiveness with the consideration of participants’ gender and the dependence of participants’ self-worth on their appearance. A general linear model with a 2 (target woman’s bodily attractiveness: high vs. low) × 2 (participants’ gender: female vs. male) design and participants’ appearance-contingent self-worth as a continuous predictor was performed. Results of these studies indicated that participants’ gender and appearance-contingent self-worth moderated the positive effect of body attractiveness on favorability perception; specifically, this effect was supported by men with high appearance-contingent self-worth and women with low appearance-contingent self-worth. Interestingly, women with high appearance-contingent self-worth showed opposite effect of body attractiveness on favorability perception in Study 2. These findings extend the effect of the beauty-is-good stereotype to bodily aspects and address the interaction between participants’ gender and appearance-contingent self-worth. Discussions on tallness and slimness are provided.