Whether it’s updating your wardrobe or opting for a new haircut, many people will try anything to appear more attractive.
But a new study suggests that your physical beauty is actually linked to one key attribute.
Humour or intelligence might be the first two attributes to spring to mind.
However, researchers from Tel Aviv University say that it actually all comes down to kindness, also known as prosociality.
‘Prosociality, due to its pivotal role in human relationships, uniquely influences physical attractiveness evaluations,’ the team said.
Whether it’s updating your wardrobe or opting for a new haircut, many people will try anything to appear more attractive. But a new study suggests that your physical beauty is actually linked to one key attribute (stock image)
Previous studies have uncovered a number of factors that influence your physical beauty.
This includes facial symmetry, flirtatiousness, and confidence.
However, until now, the impact of kindness on physical beauty has been largely unexplored.
‘In a society that values appearance, understanding the factors that influence the evaluation of beauty is important,’ the researchers, led by Dr Natalia Kononov, wrote in their study, published in the British Journal of Social Psychology.
‘We examine how prosociality – defined as actions that benefit others, such as cooperation and kindness – affects beauty evaluation.’
The results revealed that, across all 10 experiments, prosocial people were rated as more physically beautiful
In their new study, the researchers carried out a series of experiments involving a total of 4,192 participants.
The participants were presented with passport photos of smiling men or women, alongside descriptions of them.
The descriptions included different attributes, such as working in a soup kitchen (indicating the person was kind), humour, and intelligence.
Once the participants had seen the images and descriptions, they were then asked to rate how attractive they thought the people in the photos were.
The results revealed that, across all 10 experiments, prosocial people were rated as more physically beautiful.
Surprisingly, the researchers also found that prosciality had a bigger effect on beauty than humour or intelligence.
‘While other personality traits have their merits, this study demonstrates that prosociality significantly influences beauty evaluations more than other positive traits such as humour or intelligence,’ the team explained.
Overall, the researchers hope the findings will highlight the ‘unique and central role’ of prosociality in shaping your physical appearance.
‘At an individual level, engaging in kind and helpful acts could leverage more favourable evaluations of one’s looks,’ they concluded.
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