Cultural–Ecological Moderation of Physical Attractiveness Bias: Attractiveness-Based Discrimination or Discrimination of Attractiveness?

The cultural–ecological moderation hypothesis suggests that the importance of physical attractiveness (PA) for life outcomes is particularly pronounced in settings that afford constructions of the relationship as the product of choice. The current work addresses an ambiguity in earlier research that documented a cultural–ecological moderation effect on expectations about life outcomes of attractive and unattractive targets. Specifically, do cultural–ecological forces moderate PA-based discrimination (i.e., differential expectations as a function of PA) or discrimination of PA (i.e., differences in ratings of PA itself)? In Study 1, we used Bayesian multilevel moderated mediation to reanalyze data from the original study. In Study 2, we performed similar analyses on data from a new sample. Results provide consistent evidence for a cultural–ecological moderation effect on discrimination of PA and some evidence for a cultural–ecological moderation effect on PA-based discrimination.