Attraction, Love, & Communication Flashcards
(40 cards)
Attraction
Immediate and
positive emotional
and/or behavioural
response to someone
Physical Attractiveness
- When given a choice, the hotter the better
- Heterosexual men tend to value it more than women (youth,beuty = fertility)
Physical Attractiveness
- Symmetry
- Body size/proportions
- Facial attractiveness
What causes certain characteristics to be
considered attractive?
- Biology
- Culture
Sexual Selection
- Evolution of adaptive traits to increase reproductive advantage
Parental Investment Theory
- Women have greater minimal obligatory investment when having children:
-women are more ‘‘chosier’’
-because when women decide to have a child they have more in the line that man do : they cant move to much,they become infertile (during pregnancy) ,their energy decreses,have to take care of the child while man dont have the same problems (with ejaculation)
Sexual Strategies Theory
- Men and women face different adaptive problems in reproduction
-men : choosing a healthy/fertile womren to reproduce with
-women: needs a partner who is commited and will help provide resources for her and the child ( time,support,money etc)
- As a result, they evolved in different ways to overcome these problems
-Men then look for women who look young and have a hourgless chape,they might want to have as much sex with others so their chances of reproducing becomes higher
-women become choosier,have resources, financial statues, and man who provides assistant , men who look commited
Culture
Historically:
- Female voluptuousness associated with femininity and fertility
- Male muscularity associated with lower class – labourers and farmers
Culture
More recently:
* Femininity → sexuality without the ties of motherhood, career
ex:skinnier
- Masculinity and affluence associated with strength and muscularity
ex:mascular
Male Attractiveness: Physical Attractiveness
- Women rate appearance as less important than men do
- However, women report being more sexually attracted to taller men
-correlated to the preference for males who demonstrate confidence, physical strength, and a powerful bearing
-shorter men are viewed as unattractive for both casual and intended long-term relationships
- Women do have a preference for muscularity (man overstimates how much women like muscularity)
- Women prefer more masculine men during the fertile period(genetics) of the menstrual cycle and more feminine men during other parts of the cycle(nurturance and emotional support)
Female Attractiveness
: Physical Attractiveness
- Men report being more attracted to younger women
- Across 37 cultures, prefer mate who is, on average, 2.5 years younger than them
- Preference of youthful-appearing features: full lips, clear smooth skin, clear eyes, lustrous hair, and good muscle tone
- Larger breasts – signal reproductive maturity and fertility
However, in the United States, women overestimate:
1. men’s preferences for thinness in a mate
2. men’s preferences for large breasts
Female Attractiveness:Waist to Hip Ratio
On average (and in Western cultures, more specifically), a female WHR of 0.7 is rated as most attractive by heterosexual men and lesbians
Health
* Optimal ratio (for general health and fertility):
women: 0.7
men: 0.9
-
Variation among cultures:
China: 0.6
South America and Africa: 0.8 – 0.9 from front; 0.6 from side
Male Attractiveness:Waist to Shoulder Ratio
- ** .75** or lower
- Broad shoulders and muscles perceived to be associated with increased testosterone, masculinity
Facial Symmetry
- **Indicator of genetic fitness(health,)
- Perceptual bias( we just like symetric in general :people,objects etc.)
Facial Sexual Dimorphism
- Theory: preference for traits that best exhibit sexual maturation and reproductive fitness
- For women – big eyes, small nose, small chin, full lips and prominent cheekbones, narrow cheeks, broad
smile - In men – strong jaws and broad foreheads, slightly more feminized and baby faced men are more attractive too
Facial Averaging
faces that are just avarage/common
- theory: non-ordinary fetures might be related to abnormalities in their genetics
Culture vs. Evolution
Culture
* Western beauty ideals are being exported
- Cosmetic surgery industry
The Dark Side: focusing in fitness and beuty
- In cultures where thinness is idealized, people associate being overweight with laziness, softness and weakness
- Still a socially acceptable prejudice
Culture vs. Evolution
—————————– - Mixed messages
- we are obsses with Food
- In Canada more men than women are overweight, but more women than men diet
- Canadian teenagers: 69% of girls would like to lose weight and 54% of boys would like to gain weight
- Eating disorders
Factors Influencing Physical
Attractiveness: Dutton & Aron (1974)
- Male participants crossed either a stable bridge or an unstable one to meet female confederate on the other side
- Female confederate had them look at a picture and make up a story, gave her phone number in case any questions about the study
what was found: is that more men crossed the unstable bridge called back
- Misattribution of arousal
- being scared/arousal made them think they were attraacted to the women
Factors Influencing Physical
Attractiveness: Swami et al. (2010)
personality matters!
- Male subjects viewed female figures ranging from very thin to very large
- Three conditions:
(1) positive personality;
(2)negative personality;
(3) no information - Group 1 rated a much wider range of figures as attractive; opposite effect for group 2
meaning: if u think/hear someone is really nice it makes the variety of their bodies attractive
Factors Influencing Physical
Attractiveness:Germine et al. (2015)
- Twin study (identical/fraternal)
- Rated attractiveness of 200 faces
- Common Preference = 48%
- Individual Preference = 52%
not due to genes but the enviromment
Germine et al. (2015)
The types of environments that are important are not those that are shared by those who grow up in the same family, but are much more subtle and individual, potentially including things such as one’s unique, highly personal experiences with friends or peers, as well as social and popular media.
The Final Word
their is a very big variety in attraction
partner choice
women and man when choosing a sexual partner are **more alike ** then when they are choosing marriage partners
sexual partner: attractivness,attentivness,healthiness and personality are the most important
marriage partner
- women attractiveness,healthness is way less important then for men but attentivness is more important for women then for men
