2012/01/01 by Jennifer Patrice Sims · 42 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Attractiveness #Beauty #Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification #Ethnic group #Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior #Gender studies #Identity (music) #Media, Gender, and Advertising #Mixed race #Multinomial logistic regression #Physical attractiveness #Political science #Psychology #Race (biology) #Social psychology #Sociology #Stereotype (UML)
paper · doi:10.1080/1070289x.2012.672838
published in Identities 19(1), 61-80 (Taylor & Francis)
openalex publication_date 2012/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The idea that mixed race individuals are physically attractive is a commonly accepted stereotype. Past research in which whites (Australians and British) and Asians (Japanese) were asked to rate the attractiveness of a racially heterogeneous group of faces has shown that mixed race phenotype was judged the most attractive. In this study, I examine whether there is empirical evidence for this Biracial Beauty Stereotype in the United States. Using the data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, I examine self and interview ratings of respondents' physical attractiveness and, in an extension of the previous literature, conduct multinomial logistic regressions to ascertain whether level of attractiveness is associated with different racial identification choices for mixed race individuals. My results indicate that there is in fact a belief in mixed race individuals' superior beauty in America; but, with regard to identity, beauty is not associated with identity for all mixed race groups.