ABSTRACT
Would you say you are attractive? Most people are not so vain as to say they either are or are not and, as we all know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, in the development of your X-Factor, the importance of appearing attractive should not be underestimated. Wilson and Nias (1999) point out that physically attractive people are seen as more personable, popular, intelligent, persuasive, happy, interesting, confident and outgoing. This could be particularly important if you are on teaching practice. Hargie and Dickson (2004) observe that in day-to-day evaluative decisions about the quality of people's work or their suitability for selection, bias may favour the attractive, especially in situations of limited protracted contact. So what makes one attractive? In 1997, Mehrabian and Blum examined photographs of young adults and had them rated in terms of physical attractiveness by both males and females. Those factors which caused people to describe these photographs as attractive were as follows: masculinity (e.g. features to do with strength, larger chest, broader chin), femininity (based on longer hair, make-up, larger and rounder eyes), self-care (suggested by shapely figure, well groomed, well-fitting clothes), pleasantness (based on perceptions of friendliness, happiness, babyish features) and finally ethnicity.
