How Attractive Is the American Public?

Little known fact: when the General Social Survey is taken every two years, GSS interviewers who talk to respondents in person are asked to rate respondents and their home and neighborhood on a variety of measures. How attractive is the respondent, how well groomed, and how healthy? How clean is their home and how safe their neighborhood? The answers to these questions can reveal interviewer bias and, over time, perhaps changes in the health and wellbeing of the public. Here is what GSS interviewers thought about the attractiveness of the American public (the nationally representative sample of respondents to the GSS) in 2016...

How attractive was the respondent?
  7.0% very attractive
31.0% attractive
55.4% about average
  4.9% unattractive
  1.8% very unattractive

Interviewer opinions about attractiveness vary by the age of the respondent being interviewed. Younger respondents are perceived to be more attractive than their older counterparts. Among interviewers whose respondent was aged 18 to 29, the 53 percent majority reported that the respondent was attractive or very attractive, 42 percent said average, and 5 percent said unattractive or very unattractive. Among interviewers whose respondent was aged 65 or older, a smaller 24 percent reported that the respondent was attractive or very attractive, 68 percent said average, and 8 percent said unattractive or very unattractive.

Source: Demo Memo analysis of the 2016 General Social Survey