What you see is what you get: Systematic variability in perceptual-based social judgment

The existing literature on attitudes and social perception provides ample c onfirmation of the impact of physical appearance on social judgment and eva luation outcomes. The present article investigates the extent to which thes e robust findings are moderated by stable individual differences in the ten dency to rely on external stimulus qualities informing social impressions. Study 1 introduces the Perceptual Reliance Index (PRI) and provides psychom etric data on the measure. Study 2 shows that high PRI participants make si gnificantly different social evaluations for targets of high versus low phy sical attractiveness, whereas low PRI participants do not. Study 3 further extends these findings by demonstrating that within-race variations in phen otypic appearance (e.g., skin color, facial features) produce differential priming effects for high but not low PRI participants. Such systematic bias in social judgment on the basis of physical cues alone suggests the existe nce of a purely perceptual-based form of prejudice.