#but people arent meant to analyze shows this much. it's meant as a season 2 to a moderately popular s1 which was based of a beloved book

[tiberius-kirks]

I know someone said it already but it's truly insane to me how quickly gomens2 devolved fans into tjlc-levels of unwell

[daehwi]

this might sound a bit rude but why is haknyeon even still in the top 11? i have nothing against him but i dont particularly like him either. he's managed to stay up there for so long without really having a "story", any notable talents, any memorable moments, lots of screentime, or just anything besides being jeju boy. im confused??? are knetz noticing something we arent??? i know he had a bit of a story during right round but even that was short lol pls help

!!Warning: long (possibly boring) post!!

It’s okay, buddy~ 

In short: He’s top 11 because he’s popular and he’s popular because he’s likable and he’s likable partly because he’s cute. I think that he’s remained stable in popularity (despite the reasons you’ve given) because of the way his popularity formed and the cultural context and cognitive biases that helped form it. 

I answered an ask about this here where I talked a little about how culture plays a big role in “visuals” being super popular. In this post I will be fully expanding on the points of the previous post. In the future, I will be linking any asks about this topic to this post so I do not become redundant. 

Disclaimer: I’m personally indifferent about Haknyeon- I can see why people think he’s cute but I don’t think he’s ready to be in top 11. This analysis is not intended to condemn or dismiss people’s reasons for liking him, it is also not meant to be the only reasons why he’s popular- I am merely exploring the cognitive and cultural factors that may have facilitated his popularity. 

Disclaimer #2: I am not a professional psychologist/researcher/etc. I am a 3rd year cognitive science, computer programming double major who has worked in labs that study cultural differences in social and developmental psychology. I’ve done my best to research and cite the articles that I use to support my observations but feel free to bring up any discrepancies. 

First, the timing:

March 9, 2017 - Mnet first unveiled the contestants through the Pick Me stage on MCountdown.

That same day, Mnet had a “Meet the Producers” event where the trainees met with fans and gave them gifts. Here’s a Naver link to their behind the scenes footage of the event.

March 10, 2017 - PR videos started being released.

April 7, 2017 - The show officially started airing.

Haknyeon caught a lot of people’s attention for being very cute and smiley at the “meet the national producers” event. Right after the event lots of people posted fan pics of him and he had fan sites popping up left and right- take a look at the twitter activity for his name on 3/9. And then on March 10, his PR video came out and people thought it was really endearing that he talked about Jeju and being a farm boy so he gained more fans. 

Remember that this all happened BEFORE the season started airing. The fans hadn’t seen his talents/skills (other than what was shown in the PR video) and we hadn’t really seen anyone else’s skills/talents either. There wasn’t much to go on other than his personality and his looks and we didn’t have any way of properly comparing him to other trainees yet.

“Visual” culture:

The industry itself counts “visuals” as a position in kpop groups and the country as a whole places importance on being the best “you” you can be (as seen in their many skincare/makeup lines, minor plastic surgery -like eyelid surgery- being the norm, and their tendency to criticize). It may seem like visuals are more important in Korean culture because they are. This importance is even reflected in the fact that Korean language has more descriptive terms for people’s looks.

Examples, taken from Park, 2007 (pg. 55):

eoljjang (“face king,” a person with a handsome face), momjjang (“body king,” a person with a nice body), saengeol (a pretty face without any make-up), dongan (a young-looking face), longdari (slang term for “long legs”), jjukjjuk ppangppang (“long, slim, and supple”), S-line (hourglass figure), V-line (slender face), etc

The fact that Korea is homogeneous and has its own set of beauty standards/ideals also contributes to the disconnect between their culture and international fan’s cultures. That’s not to say other Asian cultures don’t share similar standards. In fact, John Nguyeat Erni and Siew Keng Chua argue that “racial proximity” can explain the popularity of K-drama/K-pop in Asia because of the shared “norms of beauty (male and female)… in contrast to perceived western outlooks” (quoted in Kim, 2007, pg 48). 

I will not go more into these because I myself am not Korean nor have I studied these aspects sufficiently to feel confident in analyzing their role in “visual” popularity. But be aware that they exist and are large parts of the culture. (For further reading I recommend this study by Bissel & Chung where they discuss Korean socio-cultural attitudes toward ideal beauty).

The psychology of attractiveness: 

It’s easy for people to become biased to a person when all they have are personality and visuals to judge them on. There is a cognitive bias that every human has in some degree or another where we tend to equate good looks with having good traits. It’s called the physical attractiveness stereotype. Studies have shown that “in a first-impression situation, [where you only have personality and visuals to judge on] a person’s level of attractiveness may evoke in a perceiver a set of expectancies” (Miller, 1970).

In 1997, Wheeler & Kim conducted a study with Korean university students where they found that Korean university students were more likely than North American university students to stereotype based on attractiveness and were more likely to rate attractive people are being more trustworthy. 

In individualistic cultures, (i.e. US/Western Europe) the physical attractiveness stereotype tends to make observers perceive attractive people as more successful/powerful but it also causes observers to attribute more negative traits to attractive people and see their integrity/kindness as low. However, in collectivist cultures (i.e. East Asian countries) which stress harmony, attractive people are not seen as more powerful- instead they are seen as having higher integrity, loyalty, and other traits that culture values.

There is another cognitive bias called the halo effect where an observer’s positive impression of one aspect of a person (like their personality) makes other aspects of that person also appear positive to the observer. 

One study found that subjects “significantly favored more attractive singers over the less attractive singers” even when their singing was poor. (Wapnick, Darrow, Kovacs, & Dalrymple, 1997).

Another study found that subjects rated an essay as more intelligent if the writer was attractive even when the essay itself was poorly written (Landy & Sigall 1975). Here is a quote from their study that explains the interactions between attractiveness and perception of talent (I’ve bolded some things that stood out to me): 

The results of this experiment indicate thatthe physical attractiveness of an individualperforming a given task affects the manner inwhich people evaluate both the performanceand the performer. This was so even thoughthe task performance being evaluated wascompletely unrelated to the physical attractivenessof the performer. Thus, physical appearancenot only affects the way in whichothers react to a person, it also affects theway in which they react to that person’saccomplishments. (pg. 304)

Remember, these biases are often subconscious and we are not aware that we have them and are being influenced by them.

How it comes together:

Joo Haknyeon became popular because of his visuals and personality before the season started airing- in some part because of the physical attractiveness stereotype and in part because his personality is likable. Korean culture, in general, also places a lot of emphasis on “visuals”. In addition to this, the initial buzz on twitter gave him some very dedicated fans. When the season actually started airing, those fans already loved him so much that it didn’t matter if he had amazing talents or not- in their eyes, he’s the best and they want the best for him. This is the halo effect- because they love his personality and visuals, his fans are more likely to see the rest of him positively and disregard his shortcomings.

His lack of screen time only made his fandom more invested because it forced them to have to go the extra mile in finding content and information about him. Many have invested a lot effort, time, and emotions on him. (This is one of the reasons why fans are so rabid and why fans can become vicious if they feel betrayed by their idol, but I won’t go into that here).

The fact that people tend to question “Why is Haknyeon still in top 11?” etc. only strengthens the fandom because defending someone again and again only makes them believe in that person more. There’s also the confirmation bias at play- people interpret information in a way that confirms their existing beliefs- especially for emotionally charged things. 

In conclusion:

There are several cognitive biases that influence how we perceive attractive people but their effect depends on culture. These reasons are not the only reasons why people like him and not every Korean fan is influenced by these biases. For the most part, though, cognitive biases and the cultural context are likely playing a role in some degree, even if people aren’t aware of it. That doesn’t make the influence wrong or the Korean perceptions wrong; it just makes them different from international perceptions. 

Different cultures like different things- and a good portion of the Korean voters like Haknyeon. If you were born in Korea and grew up learning their values and immersed in their culture, you might also have liked Haknyeon. Even if you didn’t stan him, you might have included him in your top 11 vote just because he’s very cheerful and cute- which is what I think is happening. He has a big fandom, but it could also be that other fans tend to use him to fill up space. We’ll be able to assess true popularity and fandom power (and not just casual liking) once we get to 2 pick and 1 pick.

Anyway, if you read all of this, then yay! Feel free to send me a private message or an ask if anything is still confusing (and/or if you disagree and want to discuss this) and I’ll try to expand more on that particular piece. Again, in the future, I will be linking to this answer if anyone else asks this question.