Fairy Tale Comes True : Beauties Can Turn ‘Frogs’ Into Princes

Fairy tales can come true--at least the one about a frog becoming a prince, a psychologist said in reporting a study that being with attractive women improves a man’s self-image.

The study, conducted by psychologists at the University of Kansas and Arizona State University, was presented at the recent annual meeting of the American Psychological Assn.

“In the fairy tale, the frog did not become the handsome prince until he was kissed by the beautiful princess,” explained psychologist Sara Gutierres of the University of Kansas.

“Our study shows a real-life correlation to this idea. If you’re a frog and become attached to a beautiful woman, chances are the self-image will improve.”

Unaware of the purpose of the study, 122 men and women at Arizona State were asked to rate pictures of 10 men and women defined as highly attractive, and pictures of 10 men and women defined as moderately attractive.

1-to-7 Scale

“We made the determination on the degree of attractiveness by first cutting pictures from magazines and pre-rating them on a scale of one to seven,” Gutierres said.

Test subjects viewed each picture of the opposite sex for 50 seconds and rated them on a number of psychological dimensions--such as happy or unhappy and interesting or uninteresting. They then rated their perception of themselves.

Although both men and women participated in the study, the purpose of the investigation was to test how men feel toward women. Men were further questioned on personal attitudes toward the opposite sex.

“We found a definable group of traditional males,” Gutierres said. “These are men who answered in the affirmative such questions as, ‘Should a woman stay home and take care of the children?’

“We found that traditional males tend not only to agree with such statements, but also tended to seek out attractive women.”

Results showed that the majority of men participating in the study who were defined as traditional males rated their own attractiveness higher when shown the pictures of highly attractive women.

“We call it the bolstering effect,” Gutierres said. “Males must bolster their own physical attractiveness in order to feel worthy to attractive females.”

The psychologist said the idea for the study was not borrowed from fairy tales but is part of a larger scientific hypothesis, which suggests that not only do men rate themselves more attractive when exposed to attractive women but that men and women of equal attractiveness tend to pair up.

“It could be simply that men are more often in social positions to seek out attractive women as a way to bolster self-images,” Gutierres said. “In spite of the sexual revolution and women’s liberation it is still primarily the man who initiates dating and courtship.”