TY - JOUR
T1 - Beauty growth-mindset promotes prosocial and altruistic behavior
AU - Hung, Iris W.
AU - Faust, Natalie T.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding was provided by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (Grant No. UDF01002194), Funda\u00E7\u00E3o para a Ci\u00EAncia e a Tecnologia (Grant Nos. UID/ECO/00124/2013, UID/ECO/00124/2019 and Social Sciences DataLab, LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-022209), POR Lisboa (Grant Nos. LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-007722, LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-022209) and POR Norte (Grant No. LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-022209).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024/12/4
Y1 - 2024/12/4
N2 - The effects of beauty on judgment and behavior are well-established and somewhat “unidirectional” (i.e., it seems that only beautiful people reap social benefits). In particular, a person’s beauty does not seem to have any effect on his/her own prosocial behavior. In the current research, we focus on how people relate themselves to beauty, namely beauty mindset, and how it may shape prosocial and altruistic behavior. We present 10 experiments (N = 4,449). Participants who hold a beauty growth-mindset (i.e., believing that beauty is improvable) donated more money to charity (vs. fixed-mindset), were more likely to get vaccinated against COVID-19 after exposure to an intervention focusing on herd-protection (vs. self-protection), and showed increased intention to engage in other forms of prosocial and altruistic behavior. Empirically, these effects are mediated by a self-perception of the ability to exert impact on others. The present research serves as a starting point for investigating how beauty growth-mindset brings profound societal effects such as promoting prosociality.
AB - The effects of beauty on judgment and behavior are well-established and somewhat “unidirectional” (i.e., it seems that only beautiful people reap social benefits). In particular, a person’s beauty does not seem to have any effect on his/her own prosocial behavior. In the current research, we focus on how people relate themselves to beauty, namely beauty mindset, and how it may shape prosocial and altruistic behavior. We present 10 experiments (N = 4,449). Participants who hold a beauty growth-mindset (i.e., believing that beauty is improvable) donated more money to charity (vs. fixed-mindset), were more likely to get vaccinated against COVID-19 after exposure to an intervention focusing on herd-protection (vs. self-protection), and showed increased intention to engage in other forms of prosocial and altruistic behavior. Empirically, these effects are mediated by a self-perception of the ability to exert impact on others. The present research serves as a starting point for investigating how beauty growth-mindset brings profound societal effects such as promoting prosociality.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85211380278
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-024-82134-y
DO - 10.1038/s41598-024-82134-y
M3 - Article
C2 - 39632920
AN - SCOPUS:85211380278
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 14
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
IS - 1
M1 - 30244
ER -
