Does Being Attractive Always Help? Positive and Negative Effects of Attractiveness on Social Decision Making

Ill, but Still Attractive? The Impact of Mental Illness on Attractiveness Perceptions and Social Judgment

In line with the "beautiful-is-good" heuristic, numerous studies show that physically attractive individuals are perceived in a more positive light. However, building on previous findings suggesting that the "beauty-good" relationship is bidirectional, the present research investigates how information on a stigmatized attribute impacts attractiveness perceptions and social judgments. Within a controlled experimental design, we present evidence that the mere label of mental illness (i.e., schizophrenia) decreased the positivity of personality evaluations and perceived attractiveness of a male target that had previously been validated to be highly attractive. Consistent with the "good-is-beautiful" heuristic, a mental illness label led to decreased perceptions of attractiveness, which was mediated by the inference of less positive personality characteristics. This finding lends further support for the bidirectional nature of the "beauty-good" relationship and provides a valuable avenue for future research on the multifaceted ways in which the stigma of mental illness affects social perceptions.

Beauty is in the eye of the employer: Labor market discrimination of accountants

This research investigates labor market discrimination based on physical appearance in Israel’s Certified Public Accountant firms. Using a survey questionnaire, we showed that accountants in managerial positions prefer to hire more physically attractive candidates. This beauty premium is larger among the five biggest Certified Public Accountant firms and can be explained by the perception that attractive candidates possess essential traits for becoming successful accountants. An important implication of our results is that even among accounting firms, where professionalism is well defined, discrimination against candidates based on traits such as physical appearance can ineffectively eliminate suitably qualified interns.

Facial attractiveness is more associated with individual warmth than with competence: behavioral and neural evidence

Individuals appear to infer others' psychological characteristics according to facial attractiveness and these psychological characteristics can be classified into two categories in social cognition, that is, warmth and competence. However, which category of psychological characteristic is more associated with face attractiveness and its neural mechanisms have not been explored. To address this, participants were asked to judge others' warmth and competence traits based on face attractiveness, while their brains were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). They also assessed the attractiveness of faces after scanning. Behavioral results showed that the correlation between face attractiveness and warmth ratings was significantly higher than that with competence ratings. fMRI results demonstrated that the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), temporoparietal junction (TPJ), lateral prefrontal cortex, and lateral temporal lobe were more involved in the warmth task. Moreover, attractiveness ratings were negatively correlated with activation of the dmPFC and TPJ only in the warmth task. Furthermore, the attractiveness ratings were negatively correlated with the defined dmPFC, region related to attractiveness judgement, only in the warmth task. In conclusion, people are more inclined to infer others' warmth than competence characteristics from face attractiveness, that is, face attractiveness is more associated with warmth than with competence.

The benefits of beauty – Individual differences in the pro-attractiveness bias in social decision making

While there already is a huge body of research examining the advantages and disadvantages of physical attractiveness in social and economic decisions, little research has been made to explore the role of individual differences in social decision-making with regard to beauty. To close this scientific gap, we conducted a multiparadigm online study (N = 210; 52% females) in which participants were asked to make decisions in four different economic games facing differently attractive counterparts. Additionally, the personality trait agreeableness was assessed to test for individual differences in decision-making. In exploratory analyses, we also assessed which facet of agreeableness is the most appropriate to predict individual differences in the various economic games. In the study, we were able to replicate the finding of a beauty premium and a plainness penalty but did not find any support for the idea of a beauty penalty. Furthermore, evidence for an opposite-sex advantage was found, which was greater when men were facing women than the other way around. While agreeableness as an overall trait influenced decision making across various paradigms, interactions of distinct facets of agreeableness with the partners’ attractiveness remain heterogeneous and ambiguous. This underlines the importance of integrating the specificity of certain traits in experimental research and the necessity of combining them with different social situations.

Too Good to be Liked? When and How Prosocial Others are Disliked

Outstandingly prosocial individuals may not always be valued and admired, but sometimes depreciated and rejected. While prior research has mainly focused on devaluation of highly competent or successful individuals, comparable research in the domain of prosociality is scarce. The present research suggests two mechanisms why devaluation of extreme prosocial individuals may occur: they may (a) constitute very high comparison standards for observers, and may (b) be perceived as communal narcissists. Two experiments test these assumptions. We confronted participants with an extreme prosocial or an ordinary control target and manipulated comparative aspects of the situation (salient vs. non-salient comparison, Experiment 1), and narcissistic aspects of the target (showing off vs. being modest, Experiment 2). Consistent with our assumptions, the extreme prosocial target was liked less than the control target, and even more so when the comparison situation was salient (Experiment 1), and when the target showed off with her good deeds (Experiment 2). Implications that prosociality does not always breed more liking are discussed.

Effects of the new COVID-19 normal on customer satisfaction: Can facemasks level off the playing field between average-looking and attractive-looking employees?

The attractiveness of service employees can have a significant impact on customer attitudes and behaviors. While frontline employees can reduce the risk of the COVID-19 transmission and infection by wearing facemasks, doing so can also influence customers' perceptions of employees' attractiveness and thus affect customer satisfaction. Based on the Gestalt theory, this study explores the impact of hotel employees' facemask-wearing on customer satisfaction through two experimental studies. The results indicate that average-looking frontline employees who wear facemasks induce high levels of customer satisfaction. However, while the impact of wearing facemasks on customer satisfaction is not significant for attractive-looking male frontline employees, attractive-looking female frontline employees who wear facemasks induce lower customer satisfaction. Customers' perception of employees' physical attractiveness fully mediates the effects of wearing facemasks on customer satisfaction in the case of average-looking employees. Customers' self-perceived physical attractiveness moderates the mediated effects. Implications that can help hotel managers improve customers' service evaluations during the COVID-19 pandemic are provided.

Neural processing of the physical attractiveness stereotype: Ugliness is bad vs. beauty is good

The physical attractiveness stereotype (PAS) is characterized by the belief that beauty is good and ugliness is bad. Although the belief is not encouraged, people still express "beauty is good" explicitly. However, expressing that ugliness is bad is considered impolite in public. In this study, the neural underpinnings of PAS were investigated, particularly the comparison of the neural processing of ugliness is bad and beauty is good. During functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning, participants were asked to create trait-conformity judgments based on the facial attractiveness of the images. Our results showed that brain areas, including the fusiform, thalamus, anterior insula (AI), precuneus, inferior temporal gyrus, dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), and dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) were involved in the processing of PAS. The left AI, left dlPFC, and right dmPFC showed stronger activation for ugliness is bad than for the converse. Moreover, we found a stronger connectivity between the left dlPFC and AI in terms of ugliness is bad than in the converse. Our study suggests that participants were unwilling to express the stereotype of ugliness is bad, and more mental resources were needed to control its expression than the expression of beauty is good.

Real women have (just the right) curves: investigating anti-thin bias in college women

BACKGROUND

Weight stigma is associated with negative mental and physical health outcomes across the body mass index (BMI) continuum. However, few studies have examined discrimination experienced by people with low body weights.

OBJECTIVES

This study explored the presence of anti-thin bias, defined as the belief that individuals at lower body weights have undesirable personality characteristics, in young adult women. Additionally, we examined perceived etiology of weight for women with underweight.

METHOD

Participants (N =295 women, age 18.84 ± 2.32) were randomly assigned to read one of the six vignettes about women who differed by race (White and Black) and BMI status (slightly underweight, average weight, and slightly overweight).

RESULTS

Negative personality characteristics were more likely to be ascribed to vignette characters with under- or overweight BMIs, compared to characters with average weight BMIs. Participants were more likely to attribute underweight characters' body weight to an eating disorder (ED) compared with average or overweight characters.

CONCLUSION

Results suggest that women with under- or overweight BMIs experience greater stigmatization for their body weight than women with average BMIs, underscoring the need for research to investigate weight discrimination across the weight spectrum.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level I, experimental study.

Hedonic Responses to Touch are Modulated by the Perceived Attractiveness of the Caresser

Previous research has shown that a specific type of C fiber, the C tactile afferents, are involved in detecting gentle, dynamic tactile stimuli on the skin, giving rise to affective responses in the central nervous system. Despite building on such bottom-up information flow, the hedonic perception and the physiological consequences of affective touch are influenced by various sources of top-down information. In the present study we investigated how perception of affective touch is influenced by the attractiveness of hypothetical caressers. Participants were stroked on the arm and the palm while looking at photos of high attractive and low attractive opposite-gender faces, and were instructed to imagine those people as the caressers. In a control condition no photo was paired with the touch. The stroking stimulation was delivered with a soft brush either on the forearm or on the palm, and either with a slower or faster speed. Participants rated the pleasantness of each stimulation, while electrocardiographic recordings were made to extract heart rate variability data. Results showed that participants preferred touch stimuli paired with high attractive faces; they also preferred palm stroking and slower stroking speed. Like subjective pleasantness ratings, heart rate variability responses to affective touch (slow) were higher for high attractive than for low attractive caressers, but were not selective for arm or palm stroking. Overall, the present study confirms that contextual social information plays a major role in affective touch experiences, influencing not only the hedonic quality of the experience but also the physiological state of the body.

Geometric morphometric analysis of Japanese female facial shape in relation to psychological impression space

Facial appearance has essential consequences in various social interactions. Previous studies have shown that although people can perceive a variety of impressions from a face, these impressions may form from a relatively small number of core dimensions in the psychological impression space (e.g., valence and dominance). However, few studies have thus far examined which facial shape features contribute to perceptions of the core trait impression dimensions for Asian female faces. This study aimed to identify the commonalities between various facial impressions of Japanese female faces and determine the facial shape components associated with such impressions by applying geometric morphometric (GMM) analysis. In Experiment 1 (Modeling study), Japanese female faces were evaluated in terms of 18 trait adjectives that are frequently used to describe facial appearance in daily life. We found that Japanese female facial appearance is indeed evaluated mainly on the valence and dominance dimensions. In Experiment 2 (Validation study), we confirmed that all the trait impressions were quantitatively manipulated by transforming the facial shape features associated with valence and dominance. Our results provide evidence that various facial impressions derived from these two underlying dimensions can be quantitatively manipulated by transforming facial shape using the GMM techniques.

Attractive memory: High destination memory for attractive faces

Research has demonstrated that destination memory (i.e., the ability to remember to whom information was previously told) can be influenced by characteristics (e.g., emotional expressions and age) of the destination. Building on this literature, we investigated whether destination memory can be influenced by the attractiveness of the destination. We invited participants to give information on attractive faces, unattractive faces, or neither-attractive-nor-unattractive faces. On a recognition test, they were invited to decide to whom each piece of information had been previously told. Results demonstrated higher destination memory (1) for attractive faces than for neither-attractive-nor-unattractive faces, and (2) for unattractive faces than for neither-attractive-nor-unattractive faces. We attribute the higher destination memory for attractive and unattractive destinations to their distinctiveness compared with neutrally attractive destinations. We also provide some attentional explanations for the high memory for attractive and unattractive destinations.

What drives female objectification? An investigation of appearance-based interpersonal perceptions and the objectification of women

Previous research finds that both men and women perceive sexualized women as lacking in certain human qualities such as mental capacity and moral status. The mechanism underlying this effect, however, is unclear. The present two studies test how appearance-based judgements affect the degree to which a broad sample of women are objectified. In Study 1 (N = 279), full-body images of women wearing different clothing outfits were rated by male and female participants on perceived attractiveness, sexual intent and age. In Study 2, male and female participants (N = 1,695) viewed these same images from Study 1 and rated them on two dimensions of objectification (agency and patiency). We analyzed associations between these dimensions of objectification and the averaged appearance-based perceptions from Study 1. We find that women perceived as more open to casual sex are attributed less mental capacity and less moral status. We also find that participants tend to associate attractiveness with greater mental and moral status in women, but we find only limited evidence that perceived age influences objectification. Our findings suggest that although positive attractiveness biases may mitigate the amount a woman is objectified, greater female objectification may be prompted by observers' negative stereotypes of promiscuous women.

Effects of Self-Esteem Threat on Physical Attractiveness Stereotypes

Certainly one of the first things that we notice when meeting someone new is how physically attractive that they are. Although the vast majority of studies in the literature suggest favoritism for physically attractive humans, some research indicates that negative biases may occur as well. This discrepancy in the literature may simply indicate the failure of differing experimental methods to adequately tap the same construct; however, it is also a likely indicator of moderating factors at work. This study employs an episodic memory task to demonstrate the moderating effects of self-esteem threat on physical attractiveness attributions. Furthermore, results indicate that attractiveness-based stereotypes are susceptible to fluctuations in self-esteem, such that individuals experiencing a threat to self-esteem become more reliant on stereotyping.

An Adult Developmental Approach to Perceived Facial Attractiveness and Distinctiveness

Attractiveness and distinctiveness constitute facial features with high biological and social relevance. Bringing a developmental perspective to research on social-cognitive face perception, we used a large set of faces taken from the FACES Lifespan Database to examine effects of face and perceiver characteristics on subjective evaluations of attractiveness and distinctiveness in young (20-31 years), middle-aged (44-55 years), and older (70-81 years) men and women. We report novel findings supporting variations by face and perceiver age, in interaction with gender and emotion: although older and middle-aged compared to young perceivers generally rated faces of all ages as more attractive, young perceivers gave relatively higher attractiveness ratings to young compared to middle-aged and older faces. Controlling for variations in attractiveness, older compared to young faces were viewed as more distinctive by young and middle-aged perceivers. Age affected attractiveness more negatively for female than male faces. Furthermore, happy faces were rated as most attractive, while disgusted faces were rated as least attractive, particularly so by middle-aged and older perceivers and for young and female faces. Perceivers largely agreed on distinctiveness ratings for neutral and happy emotions, but older and middle-aged compared to young perceivers rated faces displaying negative emotions as more distinctive. These findings underscore the importance of a lifespan perspective on perception of facial characteristics and suggest possible effects of age on goal-directed perception, social motivation, and in-group bias. This publication makes available picture-specific normative data for experimental stimulus selection.

Prioritized Identification of Attractive and Romantic Partner Faces in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation

People are sensitive to facial attractiveness because it is an important biological and social signal. As such, our perceptual and attentional system seems biased toward attractive faces. We tested whether attractive faces capture attention and enhance memory access in an involuntary manner using a dual-task rapid serial visual presentation (dtRSVP) paradigm, wherein multiple faces were successively presented for 120 ms. In Experiment 1, participants (N = 26) were required to identify two female faces embedded in a stream of animal faces as distractors. The results revealed that identification of the second female target (T2) was better when it was attractive compared to neutral or unattractive. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether perceived attractiveness affects T2 identification (N = 27). To this end, we performed another dtRSVP task involving participants in a romantic partnership with the opposite sex, wherein T2 was their romantic partner's face. The results demonstrated that a romantic partner's face was correctly identified more often than was the face of a friend or unknown person. Furthermore, the greater the intensity of passionate love participants felt for their partner (as measured by the Passionate Love Scale), the more often they correctly identified their partner's face. Our experiments indicate that attractive and romantic partners' faces facilitate the identification of the faces in an involuntary manner.

Safety in Beauty

Abstract. Individuals regularly exhibit antisocial responses after social exclusion. In four unregistered studies (1a, 1b, 2, and 3) and one preregistered experiment (Study 4), we tested the hypothesis that the excluder’s physical attractiveness reduces the relationship between social exclusion and negative responding. Results showed that exclusion by a highly attractive source caused less aggressive and more prosocial responses than exclusion by a less attractive source (Studies 1–3). The interaction effect was mediated by perceived likeability of the excluding person (Study 3). The preregistered experiment did not confirm the interactive effect between exclusion and attractiveness (Study 4); however, exploratory analyses indicated the effect on pro- (but not antisocial) responding. Inconsistent findings as well as the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Effects of muscle dysmorphia, social comparisons and body schema priming on desire for social interaction: an experimental approach

Background

Muscle dysmorphia (MD) is a relatively young diagnosis referring to the desire for a high degree in lean muscle mass, while simultaneously believing that one is insufficiently muscular, mostly found in men. It goes along with a risk for social withdrawal to maintain rigid exercise and dietary regimen. The aim of the current study was thus, to explore differences in men with and without a risk for muscle dysmorphia regarding their desire for social interaction. Furthermore, we investigated potential effects of individual social comparison tendencies (the tendency to compare oneself with persons who are perceived to be superior or inferior to oneself on a certain dimension) and of one’s own body schema on the desire for social interaction.

Methods

One hundred physically active, college aged Austrian men were recruited via social media and flyers at fitness centers and the sports department of the University of Vienna. Participants were randomly assigned to a priming condition evoking their own body schema or a control condition and had to state their desire for social interaction with male or female stimulus persons of high or average attractiveness. We conducted a 2 (group of participant; men with vs. without a risk for MD) × 2 (priming condition; priming vs. non-priming) × 2 (attractiveness of stimulus person; highly attractive vs. less attractive) experimental design with different social comparison tendencies as covariates.

Results

Men with a risk for muscle dysmorphia showed lesser desire for social interaction than men without this risk, which can be seen as a risk factor for psychopathological outcomes. Generally, men with and without a risk for muscle dysmorphia did not differ with regard to their preferences for attractive stimulus persons as subjects for social interaction. We confirmed the notion that a tendency for downward social comparisons goes along with a diminished desire for social interaction.

Conclusions

This study showed that men with a risk for muscle dysmorphia appeared to be at higher risk for social withdrawal and that this is associated with social comparison tendencies. Future investigations on clinical populations are needed, for this population is highly prone to social isolation and negative outcomes related to it.

Strong but flexible: How fundamental social motives support but sometimes also thwart favorable attractiveness biases

Research corroborates the notion that fundamental social motives play an important role in biases that favor attractive people. Although an adaptationist framework expects favorable social effects of good looks in most situations and contexts, it simultaneously allows for potential negative social reactions and outcomes that may be elicited by physical attractiveness in other contexts. These effects of attractiveness reflect the reproductive opportunities and threats posed by potential mates and rivals.

Evolutionary explanations for financial and prosocial biases: Beyond mating motivation

Mating motivation likely plays a role in bias to attractive individuals, but there are other complementary theories drawn from the evolutionary literature related to competition, friendship, and leadership selection that also make relevant predictions concerning biases towards attractive individuals. The relative balance of these factors will be context dependent and so help explain why the pattern of bias is sometimes variable.

On the Borders of Harmful and Helpful Beauty Biases

Research with European Caucasian samples demonstrates that attractiveness-based biases in social evaluation depend on the constellation of the sex of the evaluator and the sex of the target: Whereas people generally show positive biases toward attractive opposite-sex persons, they show less positive or even negative biases toward attractive same-sex persons. By examining these biases both within and between different ethnicities, the current studies provide new evidence for both the generalizability and the specificity of these attractiveness-based social perception biases. Examining within-ethnicity effects, Study 1 is the first to demonstrate that samples from diverse ethnic backgrounds parallel the finding of European Caucasian samples: The advantageous or adverse effects of attractiveness depend on the gender constellation of the evaluator and the evaluated person. Examining between-ethnicity effects, Study 2 found that these attractiveness-based biases emerge almost exclusively toward targets of the evaluator’s own ethnic background; these biases were reduced or eliminated for cross-ethnicity evaluations and interaction intentions. We discuss these findings in light of evolutionary principles and reflect on potential interactions between culture and evolved cognitive mechanisms.

Explaining financial and prosocial biases in favor of attractive people: Interdisciplinary perspectives from economics, social psychology, and evolutionary psychology

Financial and prosocial biases in favor of attractive adults have been documented in the labor market, in social transactions in everyday life, and in studies involving experimental economic games. According to the taste-based discrimination model developed by economists, attractiveness-related financial and prosocial biases are the result of preferences or prejudices similar to those displayed toward members of a particular sex, racial, ethnic, or religious group. Other explanations proposed by economists and social psychologists maintain that attractiveness is a marker of personality, intelligence, trustworthiness, professional competence, or productivity. Evolutionary psychologists have argued that attractive adults are favored because they are preferred sexual partners. Evidence that stereotypes about attractive people are causally related to financial or prosocial biases toward them is weak or nonexistent. Consistent with evolutionary explanations, biases in favor of attractive women appear to be more consistent or stronger than those in favor of attractive men, and biases are more consistently reported in interactions between opposite-sex than same-sex individuals. Evolutionary explanations also account for increased prosocial behavior in situations in which attractive individuals are simply bystanders. Finally, evolutionary explanations are consistent with the psychological, physiological, and behavioral changes that occur when individuals are exposed to potential mates, which facilitate the expression of courtship behavior and increase the probability of occurrence of mating. Therefore, multiple lines of evidence suggest that mating motives play a more important role in driving financial and prosocial biases toward attractive adults than previously recognized.

Walking in the uncanny valley: importance of the attractiveness on the acceptance of a robot as a working partner

The Uncanny valley hypothesis, which tells us that almost-human characteristics in a robot or a device could cause uneasiness in human observers, is an important research theme in the Human Robot Interaction (HRI) field. Yet, that phenomenon is still not well-understood. Many have investigated the external design of humanoid robot faces and bodies but only a few studies have focused on the influence of robot movements on our perception and feelings of the Uncanny valley. Moreover, no research has investigated the possible relation between our uneasiness feeling and whether or not we would accept robots having a job in an office, a hospital or elsewhere. To better understand the Uncanny valley, we explore several factors which might have an influence on our perception of robots, be it related to the subjects, such as culture or attitude toward robots, or related to the robot such as emotions and emotional intensity displayed in its motion. We asked 69 subjects (N = 69) to rate the motions of a humanoid robot (Perceived Humanity, Eeriness, and Attractiveness) and state where they would rather see the robot performing a task. Our results suggest that, among the factors we chose to test, the attitude toward robots is the main influence on the perception of the robot related to the Uncanny valley. Robot occupation acceptability was affected only by Attractiveness, mitigating any Uncanny valley effect. We discuss the implications of these findings for the Uncanny valley and the acceptability of a robotic worker in our society.

Existential neuroscience: effects of mortality salience on the neurocognitive processing of attractive opposite-sex faces

Being reminded of the inherently finite nature of human existence has been demonstrated to elicit strivings for sexual reproduction and the formation and maintenance of intimate relationships. Recently, it has been proposed that the perception of potential mating partners is influenced by mortality salience. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the neurocognitive processing of attractive opposite-sex faces after priming with death-related words for heterosexual men and women. Significant modulations of behavioral and neural responses were found when participants were requested to decide whether they would like to meet the presented person. Men were more in favor of meeting attractive women after being primed with death-related words compared to a no-prime condition. Increased neural activation could be found under mortality salience in the left anterior insula and the adjacent lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC) for both men and women. As previously suggested, we believe that the lPFC activation reflects an approach-motivated defense mechanism to overcome concerns that are induced by being reminded of death and dying. Our results provide insight on a neurocognitive level that approach motivation in general, and mating motivation in particular is modulated by mortality salience.

Sex, attractiveness, and third-party punishment in fairness consideration

Social evaluation of others is often influenced by the physical attractiveness of the person being judged, leading to either a beauty premium or penalty depending on the circumstances. Here we asked Chinese participants to act as an interest-free third party in a dictator game and to evaluate the fairness level of monetary allocation by attractive and less attractive proposers of the same or opposite sex. We also instructed participants to express their willingness to punish the proposers by using a visual analogue scale. Results confirmed that the reasonableness evaluation was mainly affected by the reasonableness of offers. However, participants' intention to punish the proposers was affected by the level of reasonableness in the asset distribution and by both the sex and attractiveness of the proposers. Overall, male proposers were punished more severely than female proposers. Moreover, the same-sex proposers were punished more severely than opposite-sex proposers when they were physically attractive; this pattern was reversed when the proposers were less physically attractive. These results demonstrate social responses following an individual's unfair asset distribution can be affected by both social norms and the personal characteristics of the individual.

Do human females use indirect aggression as an intrasexual competition strategy?

Indirect aggression includes behaviours such as criticizing a competitor's appearance, spreading rumours about a person's sexual behaviour and social exclusion. Human females have a particular proclivity for using indirect aggression, which is typically directed at other females, especially attractive and sexually available females, in the context of intrasexual competition for mates. Indirect aggression is an effective intrasexual competition strategy. It is associated with a diminished willingness to compete on the part of victims and with greater dating and sexual behaviour among those who perpetrate the aggression.

When romance and rivalry awaken : attractiveness-based social judgment biases emerge at adolescence

Previous research indicates positive effects of a person's attractiveness on evaluations of opposite-sex persons, but less positive or even negative effects of attractiveness on same-sex evaluations. These biases are consistent with social motives linked to mate search and intrasexual rivalry. In line with the hypothesis that such motives should not become operative until after puberty, 6- to 12-year-old participants (i.e., children) displayed no evidence for biased social evaluations based on other people's attractiveness. In contrast, 13- to 19-year-old participants (i.e., adolescents) displayed positive and negative attractiveness biases toward opposite- and same-sex targets, respectively. Moreover, these biases increased with the age-and thus the reproductive relevance-of the targets being evaluated. Findings corroborate the relevance of mating-related motives for social judgment and illustrate how such biases can grow during human development. At a broader conceptual level, this research demonstrates the utility of investigating proximate social judgment processes through the lens of adaptationist thinking.