Personality Counts More Than Appearance for Men Making Affective Judgments of Verbal Comments
Previous research has shown that that evaluative verbal information (praise and criticism) conveys different affective values: criticism is perceived as unpleasant while praise is generally considered pleasant. Here, using praise and criticism in Chinese, we investigated how affective value is modul...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2019-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00078/full |
| _version_ | 1811342036278706176 |
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| author | Shan Gao Shan Gao Lizhu Luo Wanyu Zhang Yuxin Lan Ting Gou Xun Li |
| author_facet | Shan Gao Shan Gao Lizhu Luo Wanyu Zhang Yuxin Lan Ting Gou Xun Li |
| author_sort | Shan Gao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Previous research has shown that that evaluative verbal information (praise and criticism) conveys different affective values: criticism is perceived as unpleasant while praise is generally considered pleasant. Here, using praise and criticism in Chinese, we investigated how affective value is modulated in men and women, depending on the particular attribute (personality vs. appearance) targeted by social comments. Results showed that whereas praise was rated as pleasant and criticism as unpleasant overall, criticizing personality reduced pleasantness more than criticizing appearance. In men, moreover, criticism of personality was deemed more unpleasant than criticism of appearance while personality-targeted praise was rated more pleasant than appearance-targeted praise. This effect was absent in women and consistent with men’s higher arousal ratings for personality- relative to appearance-targeted comments. Our findings suggest that men are more concerned about external perception of their personality than that of their appearance whereas women’s affective judgment is more balanced. These gender-specific results may have implications for topic selection in evaluative social communication. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T19:04:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-061d03a46b2947068024a14b39cc3817 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T19:04:19Z |
| publishDate | 2019-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-061d03a46b2947068024a14b39cc38172022-12-22T02:34:01ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782019-01-011010.3389/fpsyg.2019.00078423477Personality Counts More Than Appearance for Men Making Affective Judgments of Verbal CommentsShan Gao0Shan Gao1Lizhu Luo2Wanyu Zhang3Yuxin Lan4Ting Gou5Xun Li6School of Foreign Languages, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, ChinaThe Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, ChinaThe Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, ChinaSchool of Foreign Languages, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, ChinaSchool of Foreign Languages, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, ChinaSchool of Foreign Languages, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, ChinaSchool of Foreign Languages, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, ChinaPrevious research has shown that that evaluative verbal information (praise and criticism) conveys different affective values: criticism is perceived as unpleasant while praise is generally considered pleasant. Here, using praise and criticism in Chinese, we investigated how affective value is modulated in men and women, depending on the particular attribute (personality vs. appearance) targeted by social comments. Results showed that whereas praise was rated as pleasant and criticism as unpleasant overall, criticizing personality reduced pleasantness more than criticizing appearance. In men, moreover, criticism of personality was deemed more unpleasant than criticism of appearance while personality-targeted praise was rated more pleasant than appearance-targeted praise. This effect was absent in women and consistent with men’s higher arousal ratings for personality- relative to appearance-targeted comments. Our findings suggest that men are more concerned about external perception of their personality than that of their appearance whereas women’s affective judgment is more balanced. These gender-specific results may have implications for topic selection in evaluative social communication.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00078/fullpraisecriticismpersonalityappearancegender |
| spellingShingle | Shan Gao Shan Gao Lizhu Luo Wanyu Zhang Yuxin Lan Ting Gou Xun Li Personality Counts More Than Appearance for Men Making Affective Judgments of Verbal Comments Frontiers in Psychology praise criticism personality appearance gender |
| title | Personality Counts More Than Appearance for Men Making Affective Judgments of Verbal Comments |
| title_full | Personality Counts More Than Appearance for Men Making Affective Judgments of Verbal Comments |
| title_fullStr | Personality Counts More Than Appearance for Men Making Affective Judgments of Verbal Comments |
| title_full_unstemmed | Personality Counts More Than Appearance for Men Making Affective Judgments of Verbal Comments |
| title_short | Personality Counts More Than Appearance for Men Making Affective Judgments of Verbal Comments |
| title_sort | personality counts more than appearance for men making affective judgments of verbal comments |
| topic | praise criticism personality appearance gender |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00078/full |
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