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What Is Beautiful Works Smarter, Not Harder

Anne E. Haas ^a

Hannah J. G. Rupert ^b

^{^a}Kent State University, USA

^{^b}Western Reserve Hospital, USA

Advances In Group Processes, Volume 41

ISBN: 978-1-83608-701-4, eISBN: 978-1-83608-700-7

Publication date: 6 December 2024

Abstract

Purpose

Status characteristics and status cues theories posit that those with highly valued status attributes are expected to be more competent and influential than their lower status/skilled task partners. With a focus on beauty and a task cue we term “working smart,” our aim was to specify the combined attributes that led certain women to attain higher status than their female, dyadic task partners.

Approach

Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), we reanalyzed data from a published study about the impact of women's beauty on a paraverbal measure of status. The approach determines how combined conditions, such as being attractive and task efficient, explain an outcome, such as a status difference, between partners. QCA was paired with qualitative coding of interactants' speech to further interrogate the data.

Findings

More task-efficient women always attained higher status than their partners, yet a status difference was stronger if the more efficient partner was beautiful. Although gendered deviance was found to lower women's relative status, it does not constitute a status violation.

Social and Research Implications: Variants of expectation states theory are supported based on our unique QCA approach. Applying QCA as a triangulation tool to evaluate the validity of past findings is a novel usage. Social psychology benefits from QCA's ability to treat micro-level data.

Originality/Value of Paper

“Working smart” was always associated with higher relative social status but not always beauty or task ability. After 50 years, the “what is beautiful is good” thesis continues to be supported and expanded to “what is beautiful works smarter.”

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

Anne Haas gratefully acknowledges several individuals. Dr. Will Kalkhoff provided research opportunities, insightful feedback, and expert advice on several drafts of this paper. Dr. Roel Rutten and Dr. Claude Rubinson answered many QCA-related questions. Dr. Claude Rubinson also furnished expert advice about QCA software, best practices, and presentation of results. Dr. Stanford W. Gregory, Jr., through his teaching and research, inspired curiosity about status accommodation processes. Comments from an anonymous reviewer resulted in our improved and clarified theoretical contributions to the group processes literature.

Hannah J. G. Rupert would like to thank Dr. Lynette Phillips from Kent State University for her expert instruction in biostatistics. She would also like to thank Dr. Timothy Owens, professor emeritus at Kent State University, for instilling a love of social science. Dr. Sarah Rubin from Ohio University provided an outstanding education in social medicine.

Citation

Haas, A.E. and Rupert, H.J.G. (2024), "What Is Beautiful Works Smarter, Not Harder", Thye, S.R., Kalkhoff, W. and Lawler, E.J. (Ed.) Advances In Group Processes, Volume 41 (Advances in Group Processes, Vol. 41), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 181-213. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0882-614520240000041009

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited