Time course of the formation of like/dislike attitudes based on physical attractiveness

The purpose of the study was to determine the time required to form an impression. If the degree of physical attractiveness is a primary source in impression formation, target persons perceived to be high or low on the attractiveness range would be liked/disliked sooner than those in the moderate range. 45 subjects participated in a social judgment task. Subjects were assigned to 1 of 3 target persons, and 1 of 3 time interval exposures of 60, 120, or 180 seconds. Subjects indicated the amount of like/dislike for the target person on a sliding scale which was scored for start/stop times. Latency to first judgment showed no significant difference, F=(4,34)=.755 p.05. Time to last judgments were more consistent and immediate for those targets on the extremes of the attractiveness range, than for those on the moderate, F=(4,34)=3.564 p.05.