Scientia 2005: Elizabeth Gigantelli

Elizabeth Gigantelli is receiving Bachelor of Science in Industrial Organizational Psychology with an English minor. After graduation, Elizabeth plans to find a job in her field of study and eventually pursue a Master’s degree in the same. She is the recipient of the Psi Chi Research Award at the Easter Psychological Association Conference, Vice President of the Psychology Club, and Treasurer of the Psi Chi National Honor Society. Elizabeth chose to pursue a Citation in Honors to challenge herself and get a bit more out of her college experience, and liked the flexibility in the program and the classes that were offered. She also enjoyed the fact that they were a good combination of interesting and challenging subject matter. Elizabeth would like to thank Dr. Youngblood for her encouragement and help over the past couple of years; her parents for supporting her and pushing her to pursue the Citation in honors, and Christina Elvidge for being so helpful and understanding in this process.

Attractiveness in the Workplace

Director: Dr. Sheryl Youngblood
Reader: Dr. Edward Crawley


One of the largest industries in today’s society is the fashion and cosmetic industry. It is an industry that annually grosses billions of dollars and can have a large reaching affect on people. This is because what is perceived to be beautiful and attractive drives society. People will try to emulate what society deems as attractive. Attractiveness and physical appearance are such strong factors in today’s society. They have far reaching affects on many things such as how we perceive people and their abilities.

People have been found to attribute a wide range of positive characteristics to those whom they find to be physically attractive. Those that are deemed to be less attractive receive worse treatment simply because of their appearance. Stevenage and McKay (1999) identified an attractiveness bias which is the idea that “what is beautiful is good”. They found that society believes that attractive people are seen as having more desirable personality traits, greater job success, happier marriages, and a more fulfilling social life. In past research, Feingold (1992) has established that attractive people are perceived to be more sociable, dominant, warm, mentally healthy, intelligent, and socially skilled.

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