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social stereotypes.^41 Character traits are associated with
schemata, and, when one schema is activated, “the associated
traits are attributed to the target person in the form of a first
impression.”^42 Eyeglasses greatly impact both the perception and
recognition of others because they frame the eyes and make
more distinct the facial region found to receive the most notable
fixation.^43
Numerous studies demonstrate that a perceived correlation
between wearing eyeglasses and heightened intelligence develops
in early childhood and continues to strengthen with age. This
perception also exists among children who wear eyeglasses
themselves, suggesting that some children, through their own
experiences, might learn to associate myopia with intelligence.^44
Sarah Sandow, Reader in Education at the West London
Institute, conducted a study revealing that children as young as
eight years old draw a connection between wearing eyeglasses
and possessing intelligence.^45 Children ages eight to ten
consistently drew a “very clever” person with eyeglasses but did
not do the same for stupid or nasty people.^46 Hannu Räty and
Leila Snellman, professors at the University of Joensuu in
Finland, led a similar study that asked children to draw an
“intelligent” person and found that children consistently drew
eyeglasses in their images.^47 However, when asked to draw an
(^41) Roger L. Terry & John H. Krantz, Dimensions of Trait Attributions
Associated with Eyeglasses, Men’s Facial Hair, and Women’s Hair Length,
23 J. APPLIED SOC. PSYCHOL. 1757, 1757 (1993).
(^42) Id.
(^43) Leder et al., supra note 24, at 221.
(^44) Jeffrey J. Walline et al., What Do Kids Think About Kids in
Eyeglasses?, 28 OPHTHALMIC & PHYSIOLOGICAL OPTICS 218, 223 (2008)
(noting that another origin of children’s development of the stereotype that
wearing eyeglasses equates to higher intelligence could be the media’s
depictions of “intelligent-nerds”).
(^45) See Sarah Sandow, The Good King Dagobert, or Clever, Stupid, Nice,
Nasty, 12 DISABILITY & SOC’Y 83, 86–91 (1997) (commenting that “[i]t was
fascinating that the wearing of glasses has survived as a stereotype for
cleverness” and that “spectacles lend an air of dignity and bookishness, and
the wearers are cool and confident”).
(^46) Id. at 91–92.
(^47) Hannu Räty & Leila Snellman, Children’s Images of an Intelligent