Male 'devil effect'

ardour · Aug 31, 2015

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12147-015-9142-5

It confirms what a lot of us already intuitively know: that unattractive men are judged far more harshly for crossing perceived boundaries than their attractive counterparts.

“Facially unattractive males receive a more negative response in terms of perceived characteristics from violating social norms than facially attractive males”

According to the authors there are implications for online dating and, more seriously, the criminal justice system:

" ...If the male is then viewed as unattractive, the magnified devil effect may result in larger fine or sentence"

VanillaCreme · Aug 31, 2015

I don't believe in that dung, and there's no link or PDF that could ever convince me otherwise. I think it's a load of garbage. Some people just try to get sympathy from the world.

BeyondShy · Aug 31, 2015

VanillaCreme said:
I don't believe in that dung, and there's no link or PDF that could ever convince me otherwise. I think it's a load of garbage. Some people just try to get sympathy from the world.

Agreed 100%.

ardour · Aug 31, 2015

VanillaCreme said:
I don't believe in that dung, and there's no link or PDF that could ever convince me otherwise. I think it's a load of garbage. Some people just try to get sympathy from the world.

Gender Issues is a peer reviewed journal. The authors aren't trying to "get sympathy".

I don't think you even looked at it.

BeyondShy · Aug 31, 2015

ardour said:
VanillaCreme said:

I don't believe in that dung, and there's no link or PDF that could ever convince me otherwise. I think it's a load of garbage. Some people just try to get sympathy from the world.

Click to expand...

Gender Issues is a peer reviewed journal. The authors aren't trying to "get sympathy".

I don't think you even looked at it.

And I'm not about to. You have fun now.

TheRealCallie · Aug 31, 2015

ardour said:
VanillaCreme said:

I don't believe in that dung, and there's no link or PDF that could ever convince me otherwise. I think it's a load of garbage. Some people just try to get sympathy from the world.

Click to expand...

Gender Issues is a peer reviewed journal. The authors aren't trying to "get sympathy".

I don't think you even looked at it.

Okay, first, you can BARELY look at it, as it requires membership to read the actual article. As it is, you only get an abstract, which doesn't tell you everything.

And second, that journal isn't all that well known and that doesn't exactly inspire trust, considering it's been around since 1980....but, that's just from what I'm seeing on a quick search.....

VanillaCreme · Aug 31, 2015

ardour said:
VanillaCreme said:

I don't believe in that dung, and there's no link or PDF that could ever convince me otherwise. I think it's a load of garbage. Some people just try to get sympathy from the world.

Click to expand...

Gender Issues is a peer reviewed journal. The authors aren't trying to "get sympathy".

I don't think you even looked at it.

No, I didn't look at it. And I'm not going to. I said, no link or PDF could ever make me - in the smallest amount - think that way. So why would I read it? It's not going to convince me. I don't care if it's a peer reviewed journal or not. It's still people writing who want others to think about a certain issue in a certain way. What difference does it make who wrote it?

ardour · Aug 31, 2015

VanillaCreme said:
I don't care if it's a peer reviewed journal or not. It's still people writing who want others to think about a certain issue in a certain way.

The study is based on the responses of 170 college age women who took part.

It seems like there is no public access, so I can post parts of the methodology and discussion. But then you aren’t interested in that, so why bother commenting?

Minus · Aug 31, 2015

That is not the first study to find such an effect. The Cornell study published in the Behavioral Sciences & the Law journal as "When Emotionality Trumps Reason" comes to mind.

VanillaCreme · Aug 31, 2015

ardour said:
The study is based on the responses of 170 college age women who took part.

All that tells me is that for 170 people, that's what they saw. What does that say for the rest of the people in the world? Absolutely nothing.

HoodedMonk · Aug 31, 2015

What is good is beautiful and what is beautiful is good as they say. It's called The Halo Effect and not the Male Devil Effect.

Social Psychology theory.

Sorry that you feel demonized by the opposite sex, Ardour.

Peaches · Aug 31, 2015

HoodedMonk said:
What is good is beautiful and what is beautiful is good as they say. It's called The Halo Effect and not the Male Devil Effect.

Social Psychology theory.

+1

also, attractiveness is much more of a deal in women than men, who are usually judged also for things other than looks

Xpendable · Aug 31, 2015

The science conspiracy to get sympathy.

stork_error · Aug 31, 2015

Interesting article, and fully expected. There are many sad realities about looks that make no sense. Accepting it is hard but Im a realist so, I just face such ugly realities with angst, sadness and acceptance. Believing otherwise might make me feel happier but if I have to lie to myself to be happy, it just wouldn't be me. Ive read lots of articles like this to be honest. Humanity is flawed this way. I know very well to dress nicely and look pretty if i need people to be nicer to me for whatever reason. Ive tested it way too many times as Im one of those people who look plain jane blaah without makeup but quite attractive with.

Pretty girls always gets treated much much better. One place I've noticed that this is true is in the hospital. One time i was really really sick and i went in looking all scrubby like death and they treated me like a mental patient. Once I received the medicine and the ugly symptoms like swelling, eye bags and sickly pale skin disappeared, they treated me much much better.

Screwed up but it is what it is.

Tealeaf · Aug 31, 2015

I think it's a real thing, but if anything the sympathy ploy is implying that this is all about unattractive men and how unfair women are towards them--same old shtick all over the Internet. It's no news that beauty can get people some leeway (in addition to things like age, fame, gender, money, body shape, clothes, brand names, career, etc), and that people may judge books by their cover whether or not they realize they're doing it.

For crime, I can see how these things are legitimate problems. The bad guys don't always look dangerous, threatening, strange, or ugly. They can be beautiful, charismatic, and smooth talkers. If people get too sympathetic because someone is beautiful and sweet on the outside, the system tilts. If they don't dig as deeply because someone looks like a thug who'd commit a crime without a second thought, someone innocent could suffer.

For online dating, not so much. It's no more unfair than usual if people are superficial--men to women, women to men, etc. If boundaries are being crossed, things like attractiveness and leeway are irrelevant. As someone who has it happen all the time online, just ******* stop.

VanillaCreme · Aug 31, 2015

I'm not pretty, and I get treated nicely more often than not. I think mannerisms matter more.

ardour · Aug 31, 2015

VanillaCreme said:
All that tells me is that for 170 people, that's what they saw. What does that say for the rest of the people in the world? Absolutely nothing.

I suppose you don't put any stock in political polls either...You must understand the concept of a sample group within research though?

Not *all* the respondents would have demonstrated negative bias towards the less attractive male face, but the disparity between perceptions of the attractive vs unattractive example was statistically significant in relation to the 'high violation' scenario:

"These tests were conducted examining both the low and high violation conditions. In the low violation condition, perceptions of the facially attractive male’s personality (M = 2.16, SD = 2.45) and the facially unattractive male’s personality (M = 1.93, SD = 2.06) did not differ significantly, t(167) = .67 ns. In the high violation, the perceptions of the facially attractive male’s personality (M = −.40, SD = 2.26) were significantly less negative ratings than the perceptions of facially unattractive male’s personality (M = −1.01, SD = 2.06), t(167) = −1.85, p one-tailed <.05. Thus, the first (attractiveness) hypothesis was not supported, while the second (violation of norms) and third (interaction effect) hypotheses were confirmed."

"Results showed that male facial attractiveness (or unattractiveness) had little influence on perception in common situations, but significantly altered female perception in socially unacceptable situations."

(FYI the "socially unacceptable situation" involved women being asked to imagine walking to their cars when a man approaches them and asks “‘Excuse me, would I be able to take your picture? I think you would be a great model for a project that I’m working on. Have you ever tried modeling before?”)

VanillaCreme · Aug 31, 2015

Research for things like this doesn't hold any weight in my opinion. It's targeted. It doesn't represent everyone, so why would I take to heart what 170 females say when I know it's not true for every female... That's only what they think; That doesn't stand for all us females. Surely, you understand that.

Sci-Fi · Aug 31, 2015

ardour said:
VanillaCreme said:

I don't care if it's a peer reviewed journal or not. It's still people writing who want others to think about a certain issue in a certain way.

Click to expand...

The study is based on the responses of 170 college age[/b women who took part.

It seems like there is no public access, so I can post parts of the methodology and discussion. But then you aren’t interested in that, so why bother commenting?

You're seriously putting stock in a study done with college kids? Most of them don't even have fully developed brains yet. The human brain doesn't fully mature until about the age of 25. I wouldn't put much into any study done with college age kids.

Plus I'm not going to spend 39.95 to read that crock, it's a waist of time and money. This is not a real study when it comes to "attractiveness" if all it is going to go by are college aged kids.

No offence meant to anyone in that age bracket, was once one of those kids.

SofiasMami · Aug 31, 2015

HoodedMonk said:
What is good is beautiful and what is beautiful is good as they say. It's called The Halo Effect and not the Male Devil Effect.

Social Psychology theory.

Sorry that you feel demonized by the opposite sex, Ardour.

In defense of ardour, I've heard of the Halo Effect and I believe it happens. As uncomfortable as it may be to think about, people judge on looks all the time. Except I would add it happens to women as well, not just men. How many plain models do you see hawking merchandise? Ever see a lumpy, overweight woman with green teeth, wearing dowdy clothes draped over a car or motorcycle to sell same? Nah. People don't want to see that. They want to see a young woman with clear (healthy) skin with a symmetrical face (look it up), white teeth and shiny hair.
We've evolved to judge at a split-second and it often happens subconsciously. I haven't read the study that ardour linked to but I've read plenty of research on the topic.
Having said that, I'm definitely no model but I can look around me and see that the majority of people look just as average and un-model-like as me. So I don't feel like I'm being victimized by the emphasis we have on looks and attraction.

PS - ardour, it seems like I remember another member here mentioning in a post that you have a skull deformity? I apologize if I'm being intrusive. I feel like most of your posts on the forum have danced around that topic. Might that have something to do with your interactions between you and people you meet? Again, I apologize if I'm being too intrusive here.

-Teresa

Male 'devil effect'

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