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From: edhall@randvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: External appearances
Message-ID: <1965@randvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Sep-84 14:08:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: randvax.1965
Posted: Mon Sep  3 14:08:24 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Sep-84 05:55:28 EDT
References: <545@ubc-vision.CDN>
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 30

]   I am not very clear on this. Why do external appearances make a difference
]   in the real world? Do you think it is part of the human
]   nature to prefer someone with an attractive external appearance or is it
]   so because one learns it from others?
]                Farzin Mokhtarian          < ubc-vision!mokhtar >
				      
It doesn't make much of a difference, does it?  You have to deal on a
day-to-day basis with people who will be prejudiced toward attractive
people, and it makes no difference whether it is ``part of human nature''
(which I think it partially is) or cultural bias (which I also think
it partially is).

For example, a study was once done to determine the factors that influenced
customer tipping behavior in restaurants.  Quality of service was only
third in correlating with the percentage tip a waitress got.  What was
first?  Her ``attractiveness'' rating based on scores assigned by a
panel.

(The woman who did this study was quite horrified at the results, by the
way.  She had worked her way through graduate school as a waitress, and
felt *sure* that quality of service would turn out to be more important.
The study formed the basis of an article in Psychology Today a while
back; I heard about it from my brother-in-law, who is a personal friend
of the woman who did it, but I have not seen the article.)

Personally, I'm not at all happy with this state of affairs.  But, sadly,
I'll either have to live with it, or become a hermit.

		-Ed Hall
		decvax!randvax!edhall