FYI: Why Are Mean People So Hot?

The writer of this article states their own opinion and conclusions. PoPSCI is really becoming a rag magazine.

I am currently waiting for the Gee-Wiz excitement and interesting WoWzer articles, I used to love and adore from PoPSCI.

I find ego-centric, snobby people and being mean NOT attractive. Perhaps to someone young these are attractive traits, maybe, but I believe for most mature adults they are looking for something real in a personality they can appreciate and depend on. ~ Robot.

I'm not one to try and bring down other peoples efforts, but this is just trash.
I felt compelled to make an account (after 3 years of anonymous reading) just because the need feels great enough to let you guys know you need to hire better writers; articles like this reflect poorly on the publication.

The author is putting the horse before the cart so to speak. Attractive people do not have to appoligize when they do something socialy unacceptable. They are often surrounded by "yes men" and others that are usually more likely to let their behaviour slide because they are so good looking. Over time, throughout their life, their behaviour is never corrected and they end up being jerks. Basically beauty is a kind of power and it corrupts.
A less atrractive, overweight person has to be a sweetheart, and still that's no gurantees they will be "liked". People won't be quick to dismiss their quirks and try to please them.
This is why beautifull people are dead on the iside. The solution, treat everyone, including someone you may think is supepr attractive equally.

@migglewopple
I'm glad you gave a reason for this article being "trash",I actually think from a psych perspective thsi was a well written article.
@Tom1
“When people high in Dark Triad traits dress-up, they may experience greater increments in self-esteem or derive more satisfaction from the additional attention they receive, compelling them to continue dressing well.”
The study suggests that everyone started out at 0 and those with the traits found better satisfaction with the attention and self esteem boosts form looking better there by making them try harder....and it begins a cyclical process of some people trying harder to look better....they did a control showing that with out all the trappings there was no difference between people who did not test high on the test....

This article is asking the wrong question to begin with.
It should be "Why are HOT people so MEAN"
The answer is because they can be. If you are NOT hot and also mean, you are not likely to get away with it. You will be an outcast at best.

Meanness also comes with traits that drive for alpha status - and our biology is programmed to desire those with alpha status.

Machiavellionism is the desire to aquire alpha status and to be unwilling to accept lesser social roles.

Narcassism leads to selfcenteredness which presents itself as independence (an alpha trait).

Psycopathy helps to free behavior from restraint, making the Machiavellionism more effective.

(I must add, that the psycology in the article is far too muddied up by Miss Beck's desire to justify her adolescent struggles).

"narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy"?

Sounds like the New Atheist movement.

"appear more attractive"?

Not so much.

Just because robots aren't interested in psychology doesn't mean it's trash science. I think it's an interseting article.

P.
Perhaps I over reacted. I do appreciate true scientific psychology.
I suppose my knee jerk reaction was too much. The way I first read this article, I saw it as the writer venting many opinions.

I am interested of the opinions as they arrive from a valid scientific source sure. ;)

I didn't see anything wrong with this article either... she's just reporting on a study. In fact, the author presented virtually non of her personal opinions, she only paraphrased the research results.

That said, KillerT and others have good points that the reverse of the study could be the case, that attractiveness begets meanness. In fact, it could work both ways - I see this as an example of Nature vs Nurture, which I believe are equally valid.

Bagpipes100, you have added nothing to the discussion.

@Silverjeff

It's called a counterexample....very useful.

It's also called trolling....which can be amusing.

@Silverjeff

Though I do agree with you, they probably have the causation backwards.

Which honestly isn't that surprising given some of the other articles on this site.

Has this Universe a bias towards mean? Mean behaviour derives from competition and the desire to win, and often gets better results than not being mean, unfortunately.

I guess in reflection, all those past peoples who were mean to me, must of been pretty.

Well, I wish to be pretty too, I guess I'll start being mean.

Yea, yea, that's the ticket, lol.
.........................................

Ok, all of you, you smell funny! And you must really smell funny, since I am using a computer.

There, now I am pretty and eveyone wants to be like me...
........................................

Welcome to the twilight zone.

Of course, sometimes people are obnoxious at the time, simply because they can, at the time they do it.

Perhaps we're all readying to much into this.

Another question..Why do girls always want to make friends with game men? http://bit.ly/116ntjz this true?

Oh jeez will you people lay off the Popsci writers for supposedly being not 'sciencey' enough for you 'purists'? They bring interesting and amusing articles and if you geniuses happened to notice, they linked a Sci-Am article.

Not to mention this is more social science rather than 'hard science' and I think the conclusions are fairly reasonable. Mean people do appear more attractive-I'm sure we remember this from our high school days.

I understand that this article might not seem that scientific or factual, but honestly, most branches of psychology really are more qualitative than quantitative. You just have to get used to the fact that the human brain is too complex for numbers sometimes.

I found it quite interesting, myself.

Just wait in the future, when the girls are cyborgs.
Now that will put a spin on this article.

@Robot

Young People may be in hormonal overdrive, but they are not stupid. I believe I speak for the rest of the majority of the young generation when I say mean girls/guys who try and get guys and girls are not attractive.

FFVIIStrife321,
I agree with you. Being mean is never attractive at any age. I am not sure what you mean by 'get guys and girls'. That phrase could mean many things.

A "Psychology Today" article wound up in the wrong magazine.

This publication used to be geared to hairy-chested DIYers, not New Age ecoweenies. Maybe it was better back then, certainly less whiny and annoying.

Mercifully at least this one is not full of the climate change tripe.

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Mean people are not hot. That's what the movie 'Mean Girls' taught us, duh! Author, Julie Beck, missed the mark, mean people may be feared and therefore get away with a lot but they are definitely NOT hot, which is why there's a HUGE rally AGAINST bullying across the world!!?!

This article should be rewritten to show what people REALLY think of mean people...i.e. they're mean...ugly on the inside and pitiable in the fact that they are not worthy of the attention they get.

Hopefully there are enough good people out there who'll stand up for the rights of NICE people, who make up the 98% of the rest of the world.

Walk away and turn your backs on mean people, don't give them ANY power!! :-)

@CDKaulbars
Oy. Did you miss the mark and probably not read the article. The point of this article is not to state an unproven statement "mean epople are hot" but report of a study of "are mean people more attractive"....and the answer is yes and no. Mean people are more attractive after dressing up and putting on make up because there character traits that make them mean, tend for them to take grater satisfaction out of looking better than non mean people. When all the trapping (jewelery, make up clothing) were taken away they scored equally as well as other people on appearence. Please read articles before posting.

Mean people are all stupid. Some are good looking, some aren't. They all share the stupid gene, though. Anyone who enjoys being mean is not worth knowing. And what the heck is this article doing on Popular Science? Has this publication fallen that far? I suppose the answer is yes.

:-) Strange article for PopSci. However, to quote a well know songwriter's phrase. "If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, make an ugly woman your wife!" nuff said

Attitudes have been steadily changing over the past few decades, with genuine love being cast aside, where concern for others is shelved, with a desire to be tenderly compassionate being swept under the carpet.

Jesus said that lack of love would dominate during his (invisible) "presence" or our time period, saying that "because of the increasing of lawlessness, the love of the greater number will cool off."(Matt 24:12)

So it is not surprising to see meanness become more rampant. And with the increase in technology, this has in many ways, aggravated it, with people becoming more and more impatient, quick to temper, wanting things right now. Self-centeredness and narcissism is like a dangerous virus let on the loose.

On the other hand, king Solomon wrote under inspiration: "The calmness of the tongue is a tree of life, but distortion in it means a breaking down of spirit."(Prov 15:4)

Or at Proverbs 14:14 that says that "the one faithless at heart will be satisfied with the results of his own ways (that is just the way I am, unconcerned how things turned out), but the good man with the results of his dealings (gives thought as to how he handled a situation, whether or not it was loving)."

The elephant in this room is called a "confidence game"! Carefully crafted lies are subtle and tell you what you want to believe, promise what you really desire then rip you off for a bit of reality at the very least. You're stuck dealing
with the consequences. Truth is obscured and control is subverted by an impostor. It's the story of original sin. The serpent beguiled Eve and there's been a lot of unhappiness ever since. It is the disease of death itself. Humans are just the smartest of dumb animals in this world without a creator and devine helper. There is a higher purpose however. It's a very good purpose.

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I don's think it's right to hate on PopSci for the online articles. The more science-oriented articles are in the actual magazine, the website is more of an additional thing, not meant to carry any serious science.

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Meanness will always be unattractive regardless of true outward surface beauty. Those who it appeals to are confusing themselves into thinking it's desireable. I do get what the article is trying to point out, but that exists more in the movies than in real life. If I don't like someone's personality because they're rude or sarcastic, then no amount of good looks will convince me to stick around! And I'm a woman.

Oh, BTW, confidence can sometime be confused for meanness or uptightness. Don't confuse the two. One is based upon opinion and the other pompousness.

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I think perhaps the question is backwords.

Why are hot looking people mean?

and its cousin

Why are butt ugly people nice?

The answer in #1 is because they can be

The answer in #2 is because they have to be.

Awesome article! one of the few articles I've seen on the subject of beauty that is intelligent. The reason for all these negative comments is simple: people latch on to notions of objective attractiveness because they don't like to think that they can be so easily manipulated. This article challenges that, backed up by science, so they panic and deny it all!

I hope the author reads this comment because I'm very impressed with this article.

Her assumption that the dark triad signifies "mean" personalities is much more valid than many of the conclusions that scientists make about attractiveness from their own research.

People claim in these comments that they find "being mean" to be unattractive because they have a very low standard of what it is to be nice, as evinced by their judgmental attitudes towards beauty.

Here is a little non scientific proof for all you illiterate who for some reason use this site:
http://msgboard.snopes.com/photos/people/graphics/makeover.jpg

It's funny that people claim that popsci has fallen out after reading this article, when actual it's clearly the readership that has become more religious (see above) more willing to flat out deny that this is real research not just extrapolation from "movies" (see above) and less educated going by their unwillingness to talk about the research itself.

There is a clear evolutionary mechanism at work here. It pays to have a society in which everyone agrees who holds the power, beauty being a potent form of power in a reproductively competitive society. (which ours is not, in any sense that is analogous to a wild animal)
So they will naturally tend to agree on who is attractive so the mesh of society holds together.

The comments in this article make me realize that I will never see a day in which the average american is free of mind. Oh well, at least they have their religion.

Way to go, Julie Beck!

*correction* I see that the people in the photo I linked have had extensive plastic surgery. My mistake.