Cargando…

Attractiveness Compensates for Low Status Background in the Prediction of Educational Attainment

BACKGROUND: People who are perceived as good looking or as having a pleasant personality enjoy many advantages, including higher educational attainment. This study examines (1) whether associations between physical/personality attractiveness and educational attainment vary by parental socioeconomic...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bauldry, Shawn, Shanahan, Michael J., Russo, Rosemary, Roberts, Brent W., Damian, Rodica
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4889034/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27249216
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155313
_version_ 1782434932372537344
author Bauldry, Shawn
Shanahan, Michael J.
Russo, Rosemary
Roberts, Brent W.
Damian, Rodica
author_facet Bauldry, Shawn
Shanahan, Michael J.
Russo, Rosemary
Roberts, Brent W.
Damian, Rodica
author_sort Bauldry, Shawn
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: People who are perceived as good looking or as having a pleasant personality enjoy many advantages, including higher educational attainment. This study examines (1) whether associations between physical/personality attractiveness and educational attainment vary by parental socioeconomic resources and (2) whether parental socioeconomic resources predict these forms of attractiveness. Based on the theory of resource substitution with structural amplification, we hypothesized that both types of attractiveness would have a stronger association with educational attainment for people from disadvantaged backgrounds (resource substitution), but also that people from disadvantaged backgrounds would be less likely to be perceived as attractive (amplification). METHODS: This study draws on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health—including repeated interviewer ratings of respondents’ attractiveness—and trait-state structural equation models to examine the moderation (substitution) and mediation (amplification) of physical and personality attractiveness in the link between parental socioeconomic resources and educational attainment. RESULTS: Both perceived personality and physical attractiveness have stronger associations with educational attainment for people from families with lower levels of parental education (substitution). Further, parental education and income are associated with both dimensions of perceived attractiveness, and personality attractiveness is positively associated with educational attainment (amplification). Results do not differ by sex and race/ethnicity. Further, associations between perceived attractiveness and educational attainment remain after accounting for unmeasured family-level confounders using a sibling fixed-effects model. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived attractiveness, particularly personality attractiveness, is a more important psychosocial resource for educational attainment for people from disadvantaged backgrounds than for people from advantaged backgrounds. People from disadvantaged backgrounds, however, are less likely to be perceived as attractive than people from advantaged backgrounds.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4889034
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-48890342016-06-10 Attractiveness Compensates for Low Status Background in the Prediction of Educational Attainment Bauldry, Shawn Shanahan, Michael J. Russo, Rosemary Roberts, Brent W. Damian, Rodica PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: People who are perceived as good looking or as having a pleasant personality enjoy many advantages, including higher educational attainment. This study examines (1) whether associations between physical/personality attractiveness and educational attainment vary by parental socioeconomic resources and (2) whether parental socioeconomic resources predict these forms of attractiveness. Based on the theory of resource substitution with structural amplification, we hypothesized that both types of attractiveness would have a stronger association with educational attainment for people from disadvantaged backgrounds (resource substitution), but also that people from disadvantaged backgrounds would be less likely to be perceived as attractive (amplification). METHODS: This study draws on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health—including repeated interviewer ratings of respondents’ attractiveness—and trait-state structural equation models to examine the moderation (substitution) and mediation (amplification) of physical and personality attractiveness in the link between parental socioeconomic resources and educational attainment. RESULTS: Both perceived personality and physical attractiveness have stronger associations with educational attainment for people from families with lower levels of parental education (substitution). Further, parental education and income are associated with both dimensions of perceived attractiveness, and personality attractiveness is positively associated with educational attainment (amplification). Results do not differ by sex and race/ethnicity. Further, associations between perceived attractiveness and educational attainment remain after accounting for unmeasured family-level confounders using a sibling fixed-effects model. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived attractiveness, particularly personality attractiveness, is a more important psychosocial resource for educational attainment for people from disadvantaged backgrounds than for people from advantaged backgrounds. People from disadvantaged backgrounds, however, are less likely to be perceived as attractive than people from advantaged backgrounds. Public Library of Science 2016-06-01 /pmc/articles/PMC4889034/ /pubmed/27249216 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155313 Text en © 2016 Bauldry et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Bauldry, Shawn
Shanahan, Michael J.
Russo, Rosemary
Roberts, Brent W.
Damian, Rodica
Attractiveness Compensates for Low Status Background in the Prediction of Educational Attainment
title Attractiveness Compensates for Low Status Background in the Prediction of Educational Attainment
title_full Attractiveness Compensates for Low Status Background in the Prediction of Educational Attainment
title_fullStr Attractiveness Compensates for Low Status Background in the Prediction of Educational Attainment
title_full_unstemmed Attractiveness Compensates for Low Status Background in the Prediction of Educational Attainment
title_short Attractiveness Compensates for Low Status Background in the Prediction of Educational Attainment
title_sort attractiveness compensates for low status background in the prediction of educational attainment
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4889034/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27249216
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0155313
work_keys_str_mv AT bauldryshawn attractivenesscompensatesforlowstatusbackgroundinthepredictionofeducationalattainment
AT shanahanmichaelj attractivenesscompensatesforlowstatusbackgroundinthepredictionofeducationalattainment
AT russorosemary attractivenesscompensatesforlowstatusbackgroundinthepredictionofeducationalattainment
AT robertsbrentw attractivenesscompensatesforlowstatusbackgroundinthepredictionofeducationalattainment
AT damianrodica attractivenesscompensatesforlowstatusbackgroundinthepredictionofeducationalattainment