I've been thinking about this for a bit now, and I'm interested in how much we rely on physical appearance in making judgements on people (usually playing a role in whether we want to associate with such a person). I find this particularly interesting because this forum is an example where people do not have much opportunity to make such an assessment of someone's appearance. And yet, we still feel that we can get to know someone or recognize peoples' personalities and such on this forum.
So, is appearance necessary, or unnecessary but helpful when evaluating a person? Based on this, how much sway does appearance hold over you in your final impression of a person?
*edit: I meant to post this in the Philosophy section, not sure how I accidentally ended up here...oops! Anyway, I'll repost this to the appropriate section