Caravel Undergraduate Research Journal
Abstract
Over the last decade, Asian Americans are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States (Lam, 2016), and the visibility of Asian influence on popular culture has increased as well (Jin & Yoon, 2017). As a fast-growing minority community, the Asian community has been relatively overlooked in studies about attraction and the effects of ideals of masculinity. The aim of the current study was to investigate factors that influence the perception of the Asian and non-Asian faces with respect to attractiveness, dateability and masculinity. The current literature suggests that both Asian men and women are stereotyped to be relatively feminine (Wilkins et al, 2011; Mok, 1998), and thus would influence their ratings of attractiveness and dateability. If the idealized man is masculine, while the idealized woman is feminine (Little, Jones & DeBruine, 2011), then attractiveness ratings for Asian men would be low, while attractiveness ratings for Asian women would be high. Moreover, it was hypothesized that higher exposure to Asian media will increase ratings of attractiveness and dateability of Asian faces.
Results indicated that, sex and race of the photo had main effects on femininity, attractiveness, and dateability ratings. Dateability was found to be correlated to attractiveness ratings, but masculinity was not correlated to either. Exposure to Asian media did not significantly affect any ratings for male participants, but exposure to Asian media positively correlated with dateability ratings for female participants.
Recommended Citation
Yang, Grace
(2022)
"Femininity and Dateability: A Look at the Perception of Asian Faces,"
Caravel Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 10, Article 5.
Available at:
https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/caravel/vol10/iss1/5