| Abstract: | Effects of schema and level of processing on women's impressions of men's attractiveness were examined. Photographs of highly attractive men were paired with negative, neutral, or positive schemas, and 105 undergraduate women were randomly assigned to think about the men after the pictures and schemas were presented, or to do the Shipley-Hartford test, which blocked thinking about the men. Two main effects and no interactions were observed. Negative and positive schemas lowered and raised attractiveness to the same extent for both thought conditions, and women rated men as less attractive when they thought about them. The lack of an interaction was contrary to two theories regarding thought about a topic or person in the presence of a schema. Tesser predicts that evaluations should become more extreme; Linville predicts that evaluations should become more moderate when given mixed information. Reasons for the contrary results are discussed. |
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