Hot Toys November 2009
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Common sense suggests that good looks are always a helpful asset when you are looking to connect with other people. But new research suggests that this may not always be the case and whether you need to be attractive to be able create social ties highly depends on where you live.
Researchers from the University of Georgia and the University of Kansas found that “attractive people” tend to have more social relationships and “therefore an increased sense of psychological well-being. However, the importance of how attractive you really need to be to build social relationships is a matter of your geographic environment.
According to the study published in the journal Personal Relationships, looks very much matter in socially mobile urban places, but they are less relevant in rural areas, where it is much more important that you already know other people and social ties depend on who is already living in the community.
In rural areas, attractiveness is less likely to be associated with making friends and feeling good, the researchers concluded.
The study was based on a survey among mid-life in the U.S. based on data related to their well-being, social connectedness, and their body attractiveness – assessed with a calculation of their waist-to-hip ratio. Victoria Plaut, who led the study, said that “the importance of attractiveness varies with certain sociocultural environments, and, if you think about it, urban environments are actually a relatively recent addition to human life.”
