Two replications of "Hierarchical encoding makes individuals in a group seem more attractive (2014; Experiment 4)".

Abstract

The cheerleader effect implies that a person in a group look like more attractive than in isolation. Walker and Vul (2014) reported results supporting the existence of the cheerleader effect. We replicated Walker and Vul’s Experiment 4, which manipulated group size. Their participants were asked to rate attractiveness of each female face image in a group (one of 4, 9, or 16 members) and in isolation and revealed that attractiveness ratings significantly increased in all the group conditions. We performed two direct replications of this experiment using Japanese participants. As a result, at least one experiment yielded a pattern of results similar to those of the previous study, although the effect was not significant and the effect size was small.

Keywords

• Cheerleader effect
• replication study