Looks vs Personality?

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

I'm often confused by these types of questions. Isn't looks a part of the way to determine someone's personality?

At least with the way my brain works, looks are a way of assessing personality and character traits along with the sound of a person's voice, how they smell, how they walk, how they dress, what they say, what actions we can observe them taking, etc.

So it doesn't make much sense to the way my brain works to ask whether looks or personality is more attractive, since I see looks as one part of the puzzle piece to try to determine someone's personality. It's all part of the data we analyze to try to figure out who someone is and evaluate their desirability to us, isn't it?

Is what popularly constitutes as "looks" purely trying to focus on the more outwardly characteristics of a person like their potential fertility, the clearness of their skin, their fitness or lack thereof? Even then, aren't those indicative of personality traits?

For example, I would assume that someone with nice skin is someone who cares about skincare and health and possibly their appearance. I would assume someone who is very fit is someone who might has athletic interests as part of their personality, or just cares a lot about their health and/or possibly appearance (I can resolve this ambiguity after collecting more data, such as talking to them). I'd assume a woman that applies cosmetics very well has some artistry and interest in that respect.

I hope people will forgive me if this question is strange yet it just doesn't make any sense to my brain to pit looks against personality this way. To me that's like asking what's more important: the visuals in a movie vs. the movie. The visuals are a part of the movie and watching them is a big part of how we tell what the movie is (along with hearing the audio in the movie).

Updates

2 mo

I can definitely see some traits we might not associate whatsoever with someone's personality when we assess their looks like fertility, e. g. We probably wouldn't lump fertility into personality (although a body that appears fertile might suggest that someone has a personality which values and looks after their health). Still, such purely bodily traits are generally only a small subset of what I suspect we're assessing when we look at someone.

Updates

2 mo

A hypothetical: suppose there are two identical sci-fi-style clones of each other. But one is engaged in debauchery (say having an orgie) and dressed in the most tasteless fashion you can imagine and unfriendly body language, and the other is the opposite. Would you say they are both equally good-looking? I wouldn't because I would find the latter case to have what appears to be a better personality, and therefore better-looking.

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

I agree with you.

People's appearance, especially based on factors that are influenced by their psycology such as hygiene, dress style, things like hair, beard, nails and make up; do reveal a significant part of their personality and background.

That said, that's not an absolute rule. For example, I have a friend who likes to go dancing all caked in make up, stylish dresses, high heels and everything - a very glamour girl. And then you find out she's a police officer.

Or an old family friend of mine, who looks like a crazy old homeless man with overgrown hair and beard - and he's actually the owner of a very profitable business and really wealthy.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

Definitely! Although I think all evidence we collect to try to assess personality could be misleading in a similar way, like we might assume someone who smells nice takes care of their hygiene only to realize they don't, discover their words spoken to us are unreliable, etc. So I think all the data we collect in this way just functions like puzzle pieces we try to piece together to form some fuzzy mental concept of someone's personality.

One thing I could see coming from a visual arts background is that I do think there is such a thing as a beautiful composition, for example, just at a surface level. So there might be faces or bodies when accompanied by a flattering style that is just plain visually appealing.

Yet I think I can't help but always be trying to gather some information about personality even in those most extreme cases of striking visual appeal (and such striking visual appeal would actually make me more curious about the underlying personality so I'd have even more incentive to try to gather as much information as I can about personality from the visual data). Even a nice smile can suggest a whole lot (not necessarily reliable, but very suggestive) of their underlying personality.

[NathanDavis]

looks can be deceiving... both by someone adorning themselves, as much as our own bias as we perceive their looks

someone's personality can also be deceiving, because a lot of people out there can pretend and also hide their "true colors" so whenever we get a strong sense of someone's personality that can be really attractive

a very good example of this are the people who are more shy or more of introverts, who naturally won't show much of themselves, but given the chance to see their true colors... they could outshine so many others when they're confident and comfortable enough to be more of themselves

[CozyCoffin]

I always say. “Her looks got me to talk, the conversation kept me there” I see that on their side, too.

What disappointed me the most is that Lily, whom was the most interested person in me, declined a number exchange and a date invitation after she and her friends came back from the bathroom.

When I saw her, she not only appeared easy to talk to and also fun loving when I saw her chatting with her friends and laughing.

Heck, she even danced with me and chatted.

She was the last woman I asked out since then, which was five years ago.

[FunkyMonkee]

It could be but, I've known people that thought someone looked like an asshole but they were actually a really nice person and, the opposite is also true. You see that all the time in movies and t. v.. Someone appears to be a very nice person and, in the end, they are a major asshole.
I was just thinking of Columbo; everyone tends to think he's a big dope but, in reality, he's VERY smart and, because they play down his intelligence, they always get caught by him.

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

For sure; it's just one part of the puzzle piece as I see it to try to form a complete picture of a personality. Every puzzle piece has the potential to be unreliable as I see it, like what a person says, their body language, their tone of voice, etc. But I see it like it's all evidence we try to piece together to try to form a fuzzy concept of someone's personality.

[FunkyMonkee]

When I first started working at the print shop, my boss was kinda loud and yelled a bit and seemed like a bit of a meany but, very shortly after that first day, he & I got to be pretty good friends and were always joking around and I learned that most of his yelling was done in jest.
Likewise, a couple years later, they hired a new guy to be assistant boss and he looked to be a nice friendly guy but turned out very quickly to be a raging asshole!!

[GuyAnswersGirls123]

Impressions can definitely be deceiving!

[FunkyMonkee]

Sure can!

[serious]

I have my own definition and analysis of looks vs personality and I give equal importance to both.

Both looks and personality are connected to my standards.