Just another reason to be nice: research says it makes us attractive

Kindness is a virtue that the world desperately needs right now. We are always taught to be kind to others and taught to be compassionate. However, a recent study published in the British Journal of Social Psychology claims that kindness can also improve our physical beauty.

According to the study, people who are perceived as kind and compassionate are also perceived as more beautiful and physically attractive. It further shows how kind deeds and words can shape how we perceive physical beauty. Appearance is one of the first things people notice about others when they meet them. However, personality traits play a significant role in shaping physical attractiveness and the way it is perceived. Read also | Kindness can be a cognitive therapy for mental health problems. Here’s how

The study observed that friendliness and humor can play an important role in shaping a person’s appearance. However, some other personality traits carry more weight than others.

The authors of the study focused on the importance of acts of kindness, cooperation and help and their effect on physical aspects. This further explained how people unconsciously begin to view nice people as physically attractive as a way of wanting to develop stronger bonds with them.

Research results:

The study was conducted on more than 4,000 participants to understand how kindness affects how one’s appearance is perceived by others. Real-life prosocial actions, descriptions of good actions, or imagined scenarios involving beneficial behaviors were used as instruments in the study. The researchers observed a strong correlation between prosocial actions and higher ratings of physical attractiveness, further supporting that kind people are considered more physically attractive. Read also | Want to prevent heart attacks? Here’s how kindness can improve your cardiovascular health

Study author Natalya Konanova, a Fulbright postdoctoral fellow at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, said: “Often we use beauty metaphorically to describe wonderful inner qualities, saying that someone is ‘beautiful on the inside.’ I was curious to see if this perception has any basis in reality—whether kindness and generosity, qualities associated with inner beauty, really influence how we perceive someone’s physical attractiveness. Our findings show that this connection is not simply metaphorical; beautiful deeds, indeed, make us see people as more beautiful.”