The Self-Delusion of Attractiveness: New Study on Beauty Perception
Study: People Who Are Less Physically Attractive Tend to Overestimate Their Own Attractiveness
Subjective Self-Ratings vs. Objective Attractiveness Scores
(Credit: Greitemeyer et al., Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 2020)
Why Less Attractive People Overestimate Their Looks: New Study Reveals
Now, new research reveals yet another difference: people who are less attractive are less accurate at assessing their own looks and tend to overrate their physical appearance. In contrast, attractive individuals tend to evaluate themselves more accurately. This result is strikingly similar to the Dunning-Kruger effect, which describes how people with low ability tend to overestimate their competence.
This study, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, consisted of six experiments in which participants were asked to rate both themselves and other unfamiliar individuals on physical attractiveness. Participants were also asked to predict how others would rate their appearance.
In the first study, lead author Tobias Greitemeyer found that participants who were rated lowest in attractiveness were the most likely to overestimate how attractive they were.
Recent studies asked participants to rate both their own attractiveness and the attractiveness of unfamiliar strangers. Across multiple studies, the results were consistent: people who were rated as less attractive consistently overestimated their own attractiveness. Interestingly, this wasn’t due to a general inability to judge attractiveness — the distortion appeared specifically when they rated themselves.
The Beauty Dunning-Kruger Effect: When People Don’t Know They’re Unattractive
Why do less attractive individuals tend to overestimate their attractiveness? Could it be that they deceive themselves to maintain a positive self-image and avoid confronting a painful reality? Is it because they are situated at the bottom of the physical attractiveness hierarchy and are thus more motivated to deny their low social status? Or do they downplay and diminish the attractiveness of others in order to maximize their own perceived importance and visibility?
Previous studies show that people often cope with negative social feedback by blaming it, denying it, or forgetting it. This defense mechanism can help less attractive people preserve their self-esteem.
Beauty and the Bias: Why Some People Think They’re Better Looking Than They Are
There are many differences between attractive and unattractive individuals. Research shows that highly attractive people tend to earn more money, are more likely to be hired or promoted, receive more help from strangers and friends, and are perceived as more competent.
Of course, some studies suggest that attractive individuals may have shorter relationships, but the majority of findings indicate they have more sexual or romantic partners and a wider range of dating options. In other words, attractive people have more choices in life, while unattractive people have fewer options in social life, such as in friendships or dating. Unsurprisingly, many unattractive individuals may be unwilling to accept these research findings.
To explore this further, Tobias Greitemeyer conducted a follow-up experiment. In it, participants were primed with a positive, non-defensive mindset before being asked to assess their physical appearance. They were asked questions unrelated to looks, such as, “Have you been generous and altruistic toward others?” However, this approach did not significantly change how participants rated their own attractiveness.
Across multiple studies, the results remained consistent: unattractive individuals tend to overestimate their physical appeal.
Psychology of Attractiveness: The Self-Delusion Behind Beauty Perception
According to the researchers: “Overall, less attractive participants rated themselves as having average attractiveness and did not consider themselves unattractive. They were largely unaware that strangers did not share this view at all. In contrast, more attractive participants had a better understanding of how attractive they actually were. This suggests that unattractive individuals maintain a highly idealized perception of their own attractiveness, while attractive individuals have a more reality-based self-perception.”
This pattern may sound familiar—it likely reminds you of the Dunning-Kruger effect, the cognitive bias where incompetent individuals overestimate their abilities. Why does this happen? Because they lack the metacognitive ability required to recognize their own shortcomings.
Self-Deception in Physical Attractiveness: Do Unattractive People Know They’re Unattractive?
Supporting this idea, Greitemeyer found that unattractive individuals were also worse at distinguishing between what society considers “attractive” and “unattractive.” This suggests that they may use different aesthetic standards—or, more simply, that they have a poorer ability to judge attractiveness in general.
He concluded that while most people are fairly competent at judging others’ attractiveness, less attractive people often don’t realize that they themselves are unattractive. In many cases, they believe they are average or even above average in looks.
Still, there’s a twist. One experiment suggested that less attractive people are not entirely clueless about their physical appearance. In this study, participants were shown sets of photos featuring very attractive and unattractive individuals. They were then asked to choose which people looked most similar to themselves. Most unattractive participants selected photos of others who shared their level of attractiveness. That said, it’s possible these participants simply thought, “These people look like me,” without fully realizing that they, too, belong to a less attractive group.