Physical Attractiveness, Social Network Location, and Performance in the Military

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to provide insight into the effect of physical attractiveness on social network location and performance in a military environment. This study sought to prove five hypotheses regarding the many interactions among physical attractiveness, social network location, and objective and subjective performance ratings. Specifically, a mediation and moderation model were proposed to capture the relationships among the three variables. For mediation, a causal relationship was found from physical attractiveness to centrality to performance. In other words, physical attractiveness influences centrality, which in turn influences performance. Moderation results suggest that physical attractiveness influences the relationship between social network centrality and both objective and subjective performance. That is, physical attractiveness appears to hinder the relationship between centrality and performance such that more attractive individuals with high centrality perform worse than less attractive individuals of similar centrality.