A study in China found that women favor men with attractive faces and those showing positive social interest (i.e., who say they like them) when making social bargaining decisions. In an ultimatum game, participants were more likely to accept offers from such men. In a third-party punishment dictator game, they rated fair offers from them as more reasonable. However, the effects varied depending on the context. The research was published in Behavioral Sciences.
Attractive individuals often experience better social outcomes than their less attractive peers, even when other qualifications are equal. This phenomenon is known as the beauty premium. Research shows that physically attractive people are perceived as more competent, trustworthy, and likable—traits that are often unrelated to appearance. These perceptions can lead to advantages in hiring, promotions, and salaries, especially in customer-facing or high-status roles.
Studies have also found that more attractive individuals tend to earn higher incomes than their less attractive peers with similar qualifications. Beauty can influence judicial outcomes too: attractive defendants are more likely to receive lenient sentences for nonviolent crimes. In social settings, attractiveness can contribute to greater popularity and social support, particularly during adolescence and early adulthood.
Study authors Junchen Shang and Yizhuo Zhang sought to explore how attractiveness and social interest (whether someone appears to like you) interact in shaping decisions about fairness. They conducted an experiment in which women played two economic games—the three-person ultimatum game and the third-party punishment dictator game—while being exposed to male proposers who differed in facial attractiveness, vocal attractiveness, and expressions of social interest (e.g., saying “I like you” vs. “I don’t like you”).
The researchers hypothesized that participants would be more likely to accept offers from proposers with attractive faces, attractive voices, or who expressed positive social interest. Similarly, they expected that participants would perceive unfair allocations as more reasonable if they were proposed by individuals with those traits.
Participants were 70 female students at Southeast University in China who were not majoring in economics or psychology, making them less likely to be familiar with the purpose of economic game experiments. Their average age was 21 years.
Each participant completed both games. In the ultimatum game, a fictional male proposer suggested how to divide 12 Chinese yuan (approximately $1.70) among himself, the participant, and a third party. The participant then chose whether to accept or reject the offer. In the punishment game, participants observed a fictional proposer dividing money with a recipient and rated how reasonable the allocation was and how strongly they wanted to punish the proposer.
The proposers varied in facial and vocal attractiveness and in their expressions of social interest. These cues were presented through photographs, audio clips, and simple statements like “I like you” or “I don’t like you.”
Results showed that participants were more likely to accept proposals from men with attractive faces or attractive voices, especially when the proposers expressed positive social interest. Acceptance was also higher when the offer was perceived as fair, but even unfair offers were more likely to be accepted when made by attractive or socially interested proposers.
In the punishment game, participants rated fair offers from attractive-faced proposers as the most reasonable. However, when men with attractive faces and voices expressed positive interest but made unfair offers, they were rated as particularly unreasonable—suggesting that the inconsistency between friendly cues and selfish behavior was especially jarring. By contrast, unfair offers from men who said “I don’t like you” were rated as less unreasonable when those men also had attractive faces and voices.
“The present study demonstrated the effect of facial attractiveness, vocal attractiveness, and social interest on females’ fairness considerations in two three‑person bargaining games when participants were involved in money distribution or they acted as an interest‑ free third party. Although we observed a more generous beauty premium effect, the pro-attractiveness bias was shown to be stronger for faces rather than voices. Moreover, the effects of attractiveness and social interest were heterogenous across different level of fairness and different economic games,” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on the effects of attractiveness on social decisions. However, it should be noted that the study involved games in which players distributed very small amounts of money. Results might not be the same if the amounts were higher.
The paper, “Beauty and Social Interest Matter: Effects of Male’s Facial Attractiveness, Vocal Attractiveness and Social Interest on Female’s Decisions in Three‑Person Games,” was authored by Junchen Shang and Yizhuo Zhang.
