Syftet med studien var att undersöka om människor tillskriver andra personer egenskaper baserat på deras utseende. Vidare var syftet att undersöka om sådana tendenser eventuellt påverkades av kön och ålder. 90 män och kvinnor i olika åldrar deltog i en enkätstudie som gick ut på att försökspersonen fick se två bilder på en attraktiv respektive en oattraktiv person och sedan svara på frågor om personernas förmodade egenskaper. Resultaten visade att försökspersonerna var mer benägna att tillskriva den attraktiva personen positiva egenskaper. Dessutom pekade resultaten på att kvinnor i högre grad än män tillskriver attraktiva personer mer positiva egenskaper än oattraktiva personer. Resultaten uppvisade små skillnader mellan hur äldre och yngre personer tillskriver andra personer egenskaper utifrån attraktivitet. I vissa fall skiljde sig resultaten från tidigare, liknande studier. Anledningar till detta ansågs kunna vara diverse metodfel och själva det faktum att undersökningen förutom Kön också innehöll faktorn Ålder, vilket ingen tidigare, liknande studie haft. Nyckelord: / The purpose with the study was to examine if humans accredits other persons characteristics based on their appearance . Further, the purpose was to examine if such tendencies eventually was influenced by gender an age. 90 men of different ages participated in a questionnaire survey where the researchsubject were shown two pictures presenting one attractive and one unattractive person and then were to answer questions about the persons estimated characteristics. The results showed that the researchsubjects were more inclined to accredit the attractive person positive characteristics. Furthermore the results indicated that women more often than men subscribes attractive persons more positive characteristics than unattractive persons. The results showed small differences between how older and younger subscribes other persons characteristics based on attractiveness. In some cases the results divided from previous, similar studies. The reasons for this was regarded to be various methodological bias and the fact that the examination except for Gender also included the factor Age, which no previous, similar studies had.

Le culte des apparences est prégnant dans nos sociétés. La question de la discrimination à raison de l'apparence physique (poids, taille, attractivité générale, tenue vestimentaire, coiffure, allure générale, hygiène, piercings ou de tatouages, ...) ou le lookisme, dans l'entreprise répond à un problème à la fois juridique social, éthique et psychologique et de marketing, à l'envergure historico-globale. Les stéréotypes se traduisent indéniablement dans le marché du travail (notamment aux niveaux du recrutement, la rémunération, la promotion et le licenciement). Un chef d'entreprise a-t-il le droit de ne recruter que des personnes grandes et minces, d'interdire les piercings ou les survêtements au travail, ou de licencier une femme parce qu'elle est beaucoup trop séduisante? Le cas échéant, pour quels métiers et dans quels cas spécifiques? Devrait-on rendre prohiber juridiquement le lookisme ? Dans quelle mesure les lois et la jurisprudence peuvent-elles réaliser un équilibre entre les droits et libertés en cause? Cette thèse mettra en exergue (i) les lois contre la discrimination aux niveau international, européen, français et américain (fédéral, étatique et municipal), (ii) les obstacles majeurs à une prohibition juridique anti-lookisme (difficulté de preuve, subjectivité, absence d'une catégorie bien définie, contre-arguments des chefs d'entreprise...), et (iii) la réponse des jurisprudences américaine et française à ce phénomène et (iv) tentera de concevoir une loi idéale, mettant en équilibre les droits et intérêts en jeu. Une question surgit alors : le droit à lui seul est-il suffisant? La société change-t-elle les lois ou les lois changent-elles la société? / The obsession with looks is predominant in our societies. The question of looks-based (weight, height, general attractiveness, attire, hair style, hygiene, piercings or tattoos, .. ) discrimination or lookism in the workplace is a multi-disciplinary question in relation to legal, social, ethical psychological, and business-related aspects, having a global and historical impact. Stereotypes are directly reflected in the job market (mainly in recruitment, salaries, promotion and firing). Has an employer the right to only hire tall and thin woman, to prohibit piercing or jogging or even (fire a woman for being too 'attractive'? In which cases and jobs? Should we legally prohibit lookism? How can the law and case law create a balance between the rights and liberties at stake? This thesis will shed the light on (i) the international, European, French and American (federal, sta1 and local) legal framework; (ii) major obstacles to a lookism-prohibition (difficulty of proof subjectivity, absence of a defined legal category; the employers' counter-arguments, ...), (iii) the reactions of American and French case law; and (iv) will conceive an ideal law, in balance between the rights and interests at hand. One question arises : is the law sufficient by itself? Does society changes the laws or is it the other way around?

The purpose of this study was to explore how facial attractiveness of female job applicants influences the decision-making regarding a hypothetical employment evaluation in China. The study examined the effects of raters’ gender, job applicants’ facial attractiveness, and job applicants’ professional qualifications (education attainment and the years of work experience) on the interview selection, hiring, and salary decisions in a hypothetical situation. To examine the research hypotheses, a laboratory or “controlled” experiment was conducted in this quantitative study. There were two stages in this study. In Stage I, participants were recruited to rate 20 female facial photos, and based on the rating, the researcher selected two attractive photos and two unattractive photos to use in Stage II. In Stage II, college students of Human Resource Management (HRM) were recruited to evaluate six female job applications for an administrative assistant position in a hypothetical situation. Each application included one resume (high professional qualification or low professional qualification) and a photo indicator (an attractive photo, unattractive photo or no photo). Both Stage I and Stage II were within-subjects designs, also known as “repeated measures” designs. The study concluded that lookism or attractiveness bias existed in the hypothetical employment evaluations for the female applicants. Attaching an attractive photo on the resume was a benefit for the female applicants applying for the administration assistant position. Both male and female raters were more likely to interview, hire, and offer a higher salary to applicants with an attractive photo than the ones with an unattractive photo or without a photo in all of the hypothetical situations. However, male raters were more sensitive to the physical attractiveness of applicants than the female raters. Therefore, the issues of lookism or attractiveness bias in the workplace should be addressed. The author suggested that an application system should be designed and implemented which could prevent lookism at the early stages of the hiring process. Also, clarifying the definition of physical appearance discrimination and establishing legislation specific to physical appearance discrimination would be helpful to reduce the issues of lookism. Diversity training should be provided to employers and employees in the workplace to increase awareness of employment lookism. In future studies, the actual human resource (HR) professionals could be included to explore the effect of facial attractiveness on their employment decisions in the actual workplaces across different occupations and different cultures. In addition, future research could include several potential variables to control for a potentially significant aspect, such as rater’s attractiveness, rater’s age, years of rater in their professional field, or applicant’s gender.

Aim: The aim of this thesis is to elucidate the effects of gender, age, and class in witch hunts in the sixteenth and seventeenth century in Western Europe from a feminist perspective. It also aims to understand the perception of these witch hunts in our present society. It centers poor, old, women who were accused of witchcraft. Methods: a literature review will be performed to collect literature on witch hunts. Secondary analysis of this literature will be performed using an intersectional theoretical framework. Results: the spread of christianity through Europe brought a new political ideology that divided labour into sexes. The role of women was reduced to childbearing and household tasks. Medicine became institutionalised. There was no protection for poor people or aged people in the new political ideology. Conclusion: the new political ideology affected poor, old women most: they were no longer able to fulfil childbearing duties, could no longer practice as healers or midwives, and were not protected by the state. Due to the misogynistic, ageist and classist values at the time, their expressions of frustration could then be interpreted as witchery. Moreover, lookism could have been a factor in witch accusations.

This thesis features a qualitative analysis of eight Korean media products — both fiction and nonfiction. For many years, South Korea (hereafter also called Korea) has been called the "world's plastic surgery capital" by many publications, such as Business Insider and The New Yorker. Although Business Insider considers the United States the "vainest country in the world," the numbers of cosmetic surgeries, percentage wise, per person in Korea still outnumber those in the United States, with 20 procedures per 1,000 persons. In this thesis, I argue by using the cultivation theory that Korean television, such as K-Dramas, talk shows and films, which celebrate transformations and feature makeovers and thus normalize cosmetic surgery, create a fantastic space for viewers where the viewers are compelled to act on a media-generated desire to undergo cosmetic surgery in the belief that doing so will also transform or better their lives in the same way it does for the characters in these Korean television productions.