#2 (not as good as #1, but it's not a series with just 1 question)

[augiedoggie]

Answer and discuss the following at your leisure:

Does personality influence appearance more, or appearance personality?

Comments

[martydenicolo]

I would venture to say that appearance affects public personality, not private personality, but only to the extent that public personality is all we need to function within society. Kant has this great essay about sexuality where he explains that The Fall was a GOOD thing insofar as it introduced clothing i.e. fig leaves. With the introduction of clothing humans were then able to define themselves publicly: to live out through an artifice rather than the actual. Shame, then, is a good thing. It gives us the existential ability to create our own identities, and while these may not be our actual identities, they are the identities that allow us to function as human (social) beings.

So, yes, appearance does affect personality, but it can’t ever change that inner core within each of us. Some may call this the soul, others reason or rationality, but I believe it’s there in some form or another. Perhaps the more public our lives become the more anxiety-ridden we are because of an ever-increasing divide between our public and private personalities. It’s the post-modern problematic: if every aspect of our private (actual) lives becomes a matter of public debate, then we lose focus on our true human nature. There's a point when we really can't publicly function anymore when our private lives are not allowed to flourish.

I feel like I’m talking continental jibberish.

Toodles.

[martydenicolo]

when i said ever-increasing i meant ever-decreasing

[augiedoggie]

What about when public personality has a direct effect on private personality, in ways such as anxiety or joy? A happy person certainly looks more attractive than a grumpy one.

I would assume it would then go to say that when public personality has an influence on the private through personality traits such as being optimistic, empathetic, or a worrywart, appearance influences private personality by proxy.

I don't know whether that's logical or not. There are too many ways to give support or rebuttal.

[rebka_03]

I agree that happy people look more attractive. Anyone who's confident in themselves and has a good personality, as far as the beholder is concerned, will physically look much better to that beholder than if that same person had a disagreeable personality or mood.

There are certainly more than enough people here with all manner of different experiences and feelings on this issue, although I do see a trend in that most of us have said that the main influencer is personality over appearance. I'm just glad we don't have vehement assholes who argue longer than gorillaintrpted's post only to say the same thing 500 times in just as many ways.

w00t for open-minded young adults!

[martydenicolo]

Too many ways to give support or rebuttal makes it a good catalyst for discussion! Or a really lame response. Oh well.

I would say private personality makes someone truly happy, and that public personality is just a necessary facade for functional purposes. But, the happier someone is the less they have to worry about working on their facade. The less they have to worry about their public personality (facade), the less anxiety-ridden their lives are. They worry less about the public's response because they are perfectly content with their present state of being. But you're right when you say that appearance affects a person by proxy when he/she allows public personality to take priority over private personality.

It's kind of like love. Every relationship begins with the initial attraction. It's aesthetic, erotic, and purely public. The only knowledge one has of the internal workings of the other is through public personality or facade. The more emphasis the other puts on their private personality, and, inversely, the less emphasis the other puts on their public personality, the more one can know what he/she is getting into in terms of starting a relationship with the other. This can more easily cultivate a "healthy" relationship based on trust, honesty, etc. because nobody was trying to be someone other than themselves during the initial attraction.

I'm starting to wonder if this even makes sense so I'm stopping now... again.