A. George Gitter

Factors Affecting Perceived Attractiveness of Male Physiques by American and Israeli Students

Summary Most research on effects of physical attractiveness has ignored characteristics of the body as determinants of others’ reactions. Seventy-five male and 102 female students from universities in both the United States and Israel reacted to 32 drawings of male physiques. The drawings systematically manipulated five somatic and postural dimensions of appearance (Abdomen, Shoulder, Neck, Head, and Body Shape). Results yielded a series of complex interactions among body characteristics: Abdomen, Shoulder, Neck, and Shape. The abdomen factor was responsible for the largest percentage of the variance: the presence of a protruding abdomen resulted in the most negative ratings, while its absence yielded the most positive ratings. No significant differences were found between Ss from the two cultures and only minor differences were obtained between ratings of male and female Ss.

Trends in Appearance of Models in Ebony Ads over 17 Years

Analysis of models in Ebony advertisements for 17 years shows trend toward negroid features for males but not for females. Facial appearance of both tends to be Caucasian except for skin color.

More on the Reactive Effects of Pretesting in Attitude Research: Demand Characteristics or Subject Commitment?.

WHEN opinions are measured both before and after a persuasive communication in attitude research, it is plausible that the pretest questionnaire may &dquo;sensitize&dquo; subjects so they respond quite differently to the communication than if they had not been pretested. Despite some speculation to the contrary, there has been surprisingly little documented evidence of this pretest-treatment interaction in laboratory opinion change research (cf. Lana, 1969). Two alternative explanations given for the failure to iso-

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION AND THE JUDGMENT OF LEADERSHIP

A 2×2×2 factorial design was used to investigate the effects of (a) nonverbal communication, (b) sensory modality of presentation, and (c) sex of subject on person perceptions. Analysis of variance using Factor I (“Leadership”) scores indicated a significant main effect for nonverbal communication for 55 college students.

Social Roles and Sex Differences in Gilding

The results indicated that gilding or communicative behavior intended by the communicator to falsify what he actually believes to be “true” was perceived in all phases of everyday life. These results suggest the ubiquity of gilding which emerged from the findings that the incumbents of all of the 20 roles were perceived as distorting what they believe to be “true.”

Toward a social indicator of health

THE RECENT spurt of interest in social indicators has been accompanied by a lack of general theory concerning either the nature of social indicators or the methodology of how to construct them. Despite a number of papers and monographs which have appeared, the result has been an array of conflicting definitions and approaches [1,2,8]. While there is general agreement that social indicators are intended to reflect the noneconomic aspects of the quality of life [3,6,9], there is little consensual evidence as to what constitutes a social indicator, or how (in operational terms) one is constructed. This paper presents an approach toward aggregating individual variables and outlines the steps necessary to create an index which could be used as a social indicator.

Perception of “gilding” in occupational statuses

Abstract Ninety-five white female undergraduates rated various occupations on “gilding” (communicative behavior intended by the communicator to falsify what he actually believed to be “true”) in a 3 × 29 correlated measure design. The effects of (a) ethnicity of occupational status incumbent (WASP, Jewish, Black), and (b) nature of occupation (supervisory, non-supervisory) were significant. Differences were found among (1) the 29 occupations, (2) supervisory and nonsupervisory levels of occupations, and (3) WASP as compared with Jewish and Black incumbents, though not between the two ethnic targets themselves.