Skin Deep

Overview

Objectives/Goals The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effects of physical appearance on personal approachability. We hypothesized that physical appearance would affect people's perceptions of each other and impact their choice of friends, preferred students and potential employees. Methods/Materials We selected one boy and one girl and dressed them up in five different outfits, each one based on a stereotypical image. We took ten photographs of each different look. We devised a simple poll to determine which stereotypical image people preferred and identified three subgroups to query: high school students, teachers, and parents. We then asked high school students to review the photographs and choose the person they would most like to have as a friend. We asked teachers which person they would prefer to have as a student. Finally, we asked parents which person they would hire for a job. Results Results showed that appearance did affect a person's approachability and that image did affect people's choice of friends, preferred students, and potential employees. Students and teachers preferred one image overall others (T-shirt, jeans, clean-cut, sporty image). Parents preferred the professional image overall others as a potential employee. Conclusions/Discussion We concluded that physical appearance and image affected the choices people make regarding friends, preferred students, and potential employees.

Competition history

• CSEF 2005 Behavioral Sciences · Entry S0302

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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