Judged attractiveness in relation to respondent's sex, age, and perceived disability of targets

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a target's age, sex and perceived disability and a respondent's sex on judgements of attractiveness. The procedure involved the video-tape presentation of four physically handicapped individuals (targets) to a sample of 240 non-handicapped individuals (respondents). The target persons, two male and two females who normally wear lower extremity orthotic equipment, were subclassified into groups of young and old and each was viewed by an independent group of 20 respondents (one-half males) in the following three conditions: I - without a brace, II - with a conventional style brace, and III - with a cosmetic-functional brace. It was hypothesized that all targets, regardless of the condition in which they appeared, would be judged as physically handicapped, but that differences in judged attractiveness would be found and these differences would be related to the sex of a respondent and the age and sex of the target. It was expected that female respondents would give more favorable ratings than male respondents, regardless of the degree of target disability, and that female targets would receive more favorable ratings than would male targets. Also, younger targets were expected to be judged more attractive than older targets. With reference to the three target conditions, it was predicted that targets in Condition III (cosmetic-functional brace) would receive more favorable ratings than when they appeared in Condition I (without a brace) and Condition II (wearing the conventional style brace)...