Adonization is the positive attitude toward the use of physical appearance to influence others; women perceiving themselves as physically or socially attractive reported higher adonization

The role of self-perceived attractiveness and contingencies of self-worth. Eugenia Mandal, Marcin Moroń. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 179, September 2021, 110895. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110895

Highlights

• Adonization is the positive attitude toward the use of physical appearance to influence others.

• Women perceiving themselves as physically attractive reported higher adonization.

• Women perceiving themselves as socially attractive reported higher adonization.

• Women focused on external contingencies of self-worth reported higher adonization.

• External contingencies of self-worth predicted adonization indirectly via low self-perceived attractiveness.

Abstract: In the present study, we examined the associations between self-perceptions of attractiveness, contingencies of self-worth and the attitude toward the use of physical attractiveness as an influence strategy (adonization) among young women. Five hundred and eighty-seven women aged 18–35 years assessed their self-perceptions of attractiveness, contingencies of self-worth, and the attitude toward adonization. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that self-perceptions of physical and social attractiveness predicted a positive attitude toward adonization. External contingencies of self-worth predicted less positive perceptions of attractiveness, while internal contingencies of self-esteem predicted more positive self-perceptions of physical attractiveness. Additionally, external contingencies of self-worth predicted a positive attitude toward adonization. Self-perceptions of physical and social attractiveness mediated between external contingencies of self-esteem and attitude toward adonization.

Keywords: AdonizationPhysical attractivenessSocial attractivenessContingencies of self-worth