Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to study the effect of mortality salience, sex, and womens physical attractiveness on attractiveness evaluation of women and ambivalent sexism. Participants were 200 Chulalongkorn University undergraduate students. The design was a 2 salience (mortality vs. poor grade) x 2 sex (male vs. female) x 2 woman target picture (seductive vs. wholesome), with 25 students in each cell. Participants were primed with either mortality or poor grade and asked to respond to the PANAS scale. Then they evaluated the physical attractiveness of either a seductive or a wholesome woman in a picture as well as rated their impression of her. Finally, they were asked to respond to the ambivalent sexism scale. The results are as follow: 1. Males in the mortality salience condition do not differ from males in the control condition in their ratings of the physical attractiveness of both the seductive and the wholesome women. Mortality salience males were significantly less impressed by the seductive woman than males in the control condition (p <.05) but their impression of the wholesome woman do not differ.2. Males in the mortality salience condition do not differ in their ratings of the physical attractiveness of the seductive woman as compared to the wholesome women but they are significantly less impressed by the seductive woman (p <.001). 3. Females in the mortality salience condition do not differ from females in the control condition in both their ratings of the physical attractiveness and their impression of both the seductive and the wholesome women. 4. Among mortality salience participants, males rate the physical attractiveness of both the seductive and the wholesome women significantly higher than females (p <.05) but their impressions of both the seductive and the wholesome women do not differ from those of the females. 5. Among control conditions, males not only rate the physical attractiveness of both the seductive and the wholesome women significantly higher than females (p <.01, p <.001 respectively) but they are also more impressed by both the seductive and wholesome women than females (p <.05). 6. Mortality salience and poor grade salience participants do not have different PANAS scores. 7. Males score significantly higher than females on ambivalent sexism (p <.01). However, males viewing seductive women in the mortality salience condition do not differ from those in the control condition on ambivalent sexism scores.