About one in seven Taiwanese have been treated in an unfriendly manner due to their external appearance, a survey has found.
Since 2013, the Sunshine Social Welfare Foundation has been conducting the survey every three years to understand how the external appearance of Taiwanese affects how people treat them.
The latest survey, which was conducted in March, used a stratified proportional sampling of the nation’s cities and counties to collect the responses of 1,110 Taiwanese aged 20 or older, the foundation said.
Photo courtesy of Sunshine Social Welfare Foundation
The results showed that 14 percent of respondents had been made fun of due to their appearance, while 15.3 percent had unwanted nicknames based on their looks and 13 percent had been criticized for their looks.
People were most often given nicknames based on their looks in junior-high and high school, the foundation said.
People who are anxious about a physical feature or who show concern about some aspect of their looks are significantly more likely to be treated in an unfriendly manner than those who do not have such worries, it said.
Compared with the survey results from 10 year ago, the prevalence of people being made fun of, given nicknames or criticized because of their looks declined significantly, showing that Taiwanese are more aware of “face equality,” the foundation said.
However, compared with the 2019 survey, the number of people being made fun of or criticized because of their appearance rose 1 percent, while the number of people being treated badly due to their looks increased 0.5 percent.
The foundation designed an online questionnaire on face equality that collected people’s responses to people who had experienced facial damage.
The questionnaire found that people hold a more negative stereotype regarding people with facial damage, describing their features as “inferior,” “ugly,” “unsociable” and “morally degenerate.”
However, people perceived those without facial damage as more positive, associating them with descriptors such as “confident,” “attractive,” “sociable” and “successful,” the foundation said.
Differences in appearance might result in different life experiences, with people perceived to be “good looking” becoming more popular, and those with unusual appearances frequently being bullied or abused, it said.
“Everyone deserves to be treated fairly and kindly,” it said. “This can be achieved by respecting others and not judging a person based on their looks.”
In related news, the annual Taipei Freeway Marathon, the only marathon in Asia to entirely take place on freeways, was held yesterday morning with the theme “Face Equality.”
The northbound lanes on the elevated section of the Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) between New Taipei City’s Taishan (泰山) and Sijhih (汐止) districts were closed for the marathon.
Nearly 5,000 runners participated, including more than 100 “sunshine runners” — people with facial damage or burns — and their family members, who had been invited by the Sunshine Social Welfare Foundation.
Entertainer Selina Jen (任家萱), who sustained severe burns when an explosion scene went awry on the set of a TV series being shot in China in 2010, served as the event’s ambassador yesterday, firing the starting pistol for the 3km race.
Additional reporting by Liang Wei-ming
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