A Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Attractiveness Halo Effect in Men and Women

According to the attractiveness halo effect, global person perceptions are biased by physical attractiveness: More attractive people are ascribed positive attributes like competence, prosociality, and health, with cross-cultural variation in such perceptions. However, extant cross-cultural studies mostly considered cross-cultural differences only in either observers or targets. This preregistered study explored cross-cultural nuances in the attractiveness halo effect for Brazilian and German target men and women, as perceived by Brazilian and German observers. Facial photos of 583 targets were judged separately for attractiveness, prosociality, health, intelligence, social competence, familiarity, and physical and social dominance by 554 Brazilian and 326 German observers. Ratings between Brazilian and German observers for the same target group and attribute were strongly positively correlated, except for familiarity for German male targets. Attractiveness halo effects were overall strong (stronger for health, social competence, and familiarity compared to social dominance, prosociality, and intelligence) and mostly consistent for Brazilian and German targets and observers, with few exceptions. Only for physical dominance, associations were mixed by target gender and nationality. This study supports a putative universality of attractiveness halo effects and also contributes to a deeper understanding of subtle variations in the halo effects of men’s and women’s attractiveness in more individualistic versus more collectivistic cultures.