Archie Kipp's Rhetoric 1040 Blog

Introduction             Psychiatrist Robert Waldinger talks about the discoveries of a 75-year case study, called the Grant Study, on human happiness. On the Ted stage he explains how what gives long-term fulfillment to people, more than anything else, is connection (2015). Connecting on an intimate level and having meaningful relationships is essential to having a significant life and being human. Some research suggests that this connection that we all seek is more accessible to better looking people.              Social exchange theory is an idea conceived by George Homons, that suggests that most relationships are continued based on a weighing of costs and benefits (Cherry, 2015). If a cost is very high and the benefits appear to be low, then we may cut that relationship off, or make some sort of change. The prisoner’s dilemma is a concept of social exc...

1. The topic I am choosing is about perceived attraction and its correlation with opportunity in life. I think this is an important topic because attractiveness is obviously something we value; from the politicians we elect, to the celebrities that we idolize. I also think that being successful in life is another thing that we value. 2. How does how attractive you are impact the amount of opportunity you get? What is attractiveness? 3. My research plan is to loosely conduct an experiment where I see how people react to different scenarios of people with varying levels of perceived attractiveness. Possibly by showing pictures because just sorting people by attractiveness seems rather vain,