A new "no shit" study states that "personality goes a long way toward determining your attractiveness; it can even change people's impressions of how good looking you are." The study involved 78 college students who watched a computer screen display faces of the opposite sex and rated the faces on physical attractiveness while simultaneously learning about the "personality" of the person pictured. "Some were described as being honest, humorous, mature, intelligent, polite, and helpful. Others were called abusive, offensive, unstable, cruel, unfair, and rude." The students also had to note whether they would want to befriend or date the person pictured. Nothing too surprising happened: People weren't into making friends with the beautiful yet cruel.
The bottom line is that personality matters more than looks. Although — and this is also not shocking — women had "stronger" results. Which means that men are more likely to date a pretty girl with a shitty personality. But you knew that! And, on the flip side, ladies certainly know all about avoiding the good-looking dudes who are actually assholes. The best part? The researchers claim that "these findings are particularly encouraging as cosmetic surgery becomes increasingly common." Because you can get a nose job, but you can't get a nice job, heh.
But seriously. What the researchers ought to have studied is this: Do beautiful jerks exist because they're beautiful? Do they look in the mirror, see perfection and feel that their genetic lottery winnings give them a free pass to be rude and mean? And do "less attractive" people work harder at being smart, funny, well-rounded and nice because they know they can't rely on their looks? And why is it that when we meet a really attractive person who is also actually nice, we're somewhat shocked?
Pretty Is As Pretty Does [CBS News]