what’s preventing us to get more attraction: the fear of aesthetic surgery

background nowadays, with the help of cosmetic surgery almost every woman and man can achieve a highly attractive appearance. the question is, why so many people do not take advantage of these opportunities? this pilot-study investigates individual attitudes of people towards aesthetic plastic surgery. methods a questionnaire was developed which combined self-developed items for a measurement of attitudes towards plastic surgery. in addition, items of the “freiburger personality inventory” (fpi-r) were used. the study was conducted in hamburg/germany. 104one hundred and four test persons participated in the survey (81 females, 23 males, age 20-30 years). eighty six of the participants (82.7%) had an a-level as degree of education, 14.4% achieved the secondary school certificate and 2.9% had completed their bachelor on a high school. results the data supported the hypothesis that people who are unsatisfied with their body appearance showed more willingness for a surgical intervention. on the other hand, fear of complications and pain as far as anxiety before an unsatisfactory result hinders them from a decision for an intervention. significant correlations with regard to extraversion-introversion and the education level were not found. females showed more willingness regarding an intervention than men. gender-specific differences concerning the cost factor were not found. conclusion interestingly more than 65% of the total sample felt dissatisfaction with a specific body part and are thus target of aesthetic surgery. the yellow press often reports about failed cosmetic surgery, especially in vip-persons. aesthetic surgery should keep working to reduce unwarranted fears of people toward these kinds of operations.