It's
an axiom of evolutionary psychology that beautiful people are healthier too. New
evidence suggests that that's a lovely fiction. In fact, beauty may actually blind
us to the real state of physical health.
S.
Michael Kalick, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts, set out to look for
truth in beauty. He asked 32 judges to rate the attractiveness of 333 faces by
photograph. Then he compared the ratings with the actual, indisputable health
records of the people pictured. Kalick found that the ones judged attractive were
no healthier than their homelier peers. Kalick then had a second group look at
the photographs, this time to indicate which people they thought were physically
healthy. The raters' guesses were surprisingly accurate--except when the face
was especially good-looking or especially ugly.
Attractive
faces were almost always labeled healthy, while unattractive ones were usually
thought to be unhealthy. This was so, even when there seemed to be other, more
trustworthy cues to the contrary
Though
Kalick isn't sure how they do it, it seems that people do know how to judge health
from appearance--but they ignore this knowledge when presented with faces that
fall at either extreme of attractiveness.
Biologically
justified or not, beauty will remain important in picking a mate.
By:
Paul, Annie Murphy Originally published by Psychology Today:May/Jun 98
