A Group’s Physical Attractiveness Is Greater Than the Average Attractiveness of Its Members: the Group Attractiveness Effect

We tested whether the perceived physical attractiveness of a group is greater than the average attractiveness of its members. in nine studies,we find evidence for the so-called group attractiveness effect (ga-effect),using female,male,and mixed-gender groups,indicating that group impressions of physical attractiveness are more positive than the average ratings of the group members. a meta-analysis on 33 comparisons reveals that the effect is medium to large (cohen’s d = 0.60) and moderated by group size. we explored two explanations for the ga-effect: (a) selective attention to attractive group members,and (b) the gestalt principle of similarity. the results of our studies are in favor of the selective attention account: people selectively attend to the most attractive members of a group and their attractiveness has a greater influence on the evaluation of the group. © 2015 by the society for personality and social psychology,inc