What do people infer from facial attractiveness?

Abstract

The facial photographs of 84 heterosexual women were rated for attractiveness by 74 males and 74 females who also made judgements regarding the personality and behaviour of these women. Both sexes judged physically attractive women as possessing more desirable personality traits and also as being more promiscuous than less attractive women. These findings extend the beauty-is-good stereotype, also attributing a more unrestricted sexual strategy to attractive women. This is consistent with research identifying the actual strategies of attractive women. It is argued that both sexes would benefit – in terms of mate choice and identification of rivals – from identifying attractive women as likely to be more promiscuous