Others’ Facial Attractiveness And Children’s Trust:Mediating Role Of Peer Acceptance

Trust is important for social interaction; besides, trust is one of the personality attributes that is linked to individuals’wellbeing. Trust in the self and others not only provides positive motivation for the present social interaction, but also lays the foundation for positive attitudes about one’s future involvements in society. But trust a person is risky, so we should be cautious. There are many factors influencing our trust in others, and one of them is others’facial attractiveness. Duing to the lack of other clues, information from the face will become the reliable source of one’s decision to trust a stranger. However, with the deepening of the social interactions, individuals can acquire more information to decide whether to trust others. This research focuses on the effects of others’facial attractiveness on children’s trust in different phases of interpersonal interaction and the relation among facial attractiveness, interpersonal relationship, and children’s trust.This study has two parts, and all the participants are from elementary schools. The first part tested the effects of facial attractiveness on children’s initial trust. The results revealed:(1) In the initial stage of interpersonal interaction, facial attractiveness affected children’s initial trust. The more beautiful strangers looked, the more children trusted them. (2)There was gender difference in the effect of facial attractiveness on children’s initial trust:the effect of facial attractiveness on children’s initial trust was stronger for girls than boys.The second part investigated the effect of facial attractiveness on children’s trust in peers. Meanwhile we carried out a one-year longitudinal study to explore the relation among facial attractiveness, peer acceptance, and children’s trust in peers.The results revealed:(3) In the deepened stage of interpersonal interaction, facial attractiveness affected children’s trust in peers. The more beautiful peers looked, the more children trusted them. (4)Through cross-lagged regression analysis,we found that peer acceptance was the antecedent variables of children’s trust in peers.(5) Peer acceptance was a significant mediator on the relation between facial attractiveness and children’s trust in peers. The beautiful children were easier to be accepted by their peers, and then were easier to be trusted by their peers.