A Study in Ugliness & Outras Histórias by H. Pueyo

The participants were shown an equal number of White, Black and Asian faces. Participants were presented with six unattractive faces, six average-looking faces and six attractive faces. To explore their hypothesis, the researchers first investigated whether ugly stimuli would elicit disgust. Thus, the researchers hypothesized that people may judge others as ugly when they detect the potential for disease, which motivates them to avoid that person in order to remain safe. Although it may seem cruel to avoid someone based on their appearance, research suggests that this mechanism helped humans avoid the threat of disease in our evolutionary history.Īlthough we now have more effective ways to detect diseases, this process – which comprises the behavioral immune system, or BIS – may still be a driver of human behavior today.

If an individual was approached by someone containing these cues, they would likely react with disgust, which then would have motivated them to avoid the person in question. presence of bodily fluids, lesions, etc.). It’s believed that humans developed the ability to detect cues associated with infectious disease by relying on appearance as a source of relevant heuristics (e.g. A study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science proposed that when people judge someone or something as ugly, it activates their behavioral immune system, which alerts them to the presence of potentially harmful diseases.īefore the days of modern medicine, humans had very few ways of assessing the threat of disease.

A Study in Ugliness & Outras Histórias by H. Pueyo