Prosocial behaviour enhances evaluation of physical beauty.

Ten studies (N = 4192) demonstrated that individuals depicted as prosocial were judged to be more physically beautiful. This evaluation of prosocial individuals as more beautiful is influenced by a motivation to be associated with prosocial others. This phenomenon was observed in real-world settings (Study 1) and applied to both men and women, both as targets and observers (Studies 2a-2b).

Beautiful Strangers: Physical Evaluation of Strangers Is Influenced by Friendship Expectation.

People tend to evaluate themselves as better than they actually are. Such enhanced positive evaluation occurs not only for the self but also for close others. We extend the exploration of enhanced evaluation of close others to that of strangers.