Benson and colleagues' (1976) experiment provides evidence that physical attractiveness can influence people's willingness to help others in certain contexts.
In the experiment conducted by Benson and colleagues (1976), an application packet was left at an airport phone booth. The packet contained either an attractive or unattractive picture of the applicant. It was presented as if the packet had been lost and included a stamped, addressed envelope.
The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the impact of physical attractiveness on helping behavior. They wanted to see if people were more likely to return a lost item if the person depicted in the picture was attractive or unattractive.
The findings of the experiment showed that people were more likely to return the lost item when the picture of the applicant was attractive compared to when it was unattractive. This suggests that physical attractiveness can influence people's willingness to help others.
It is important to note that this experiment focused specifically on the impact of physical attractiveness on helping behavior in the context of returning a lost item. The results may not necessarily generalize to other situations or forms of assistance.