Physical attractiveness

Question 1

What is physical attractiveness?

Answer 1

How appealing we find a person’s face - important factor in formation of romantic relationships

Question 2

Symmetry

Answer 2

People with symmetrical faces are rated as more attractive - signal of genetic fitness

Shackleford and Larsen

Question 3

social norms

Answer 3

Rapid changes in partner preferences due to changing social norms

Tamas Bereczkei

Question 4

Neotenous features - neoteny

Answer 4

Baby-face - neotenous features eg widely separated and large eyes, delicate chin and small nose - more attractive - trigger protective or caring instinct

Question 5

The halo effect

Answer 5

Someone that is physically attractive is seen with positive traits
How one distinguishing feature (physical attractiveness) has disproportionate influence on our judgements of a person’s other attributes

Question 6

Dion - 1972

Answer 6

What is beautiful is good
- Physically attractive people consistently rated as kind, strong, sociable and successful compared to unattractive people

Question 7

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 7

Behaving more positively towards people we view attractive so they behave more nicely in return

Question 8

Who came up with the matching hypothesis?

Answer 8

Walster and Walster - 1969

Question 9

The matching hypothesis

Answer 9

We look for partners who are similar to ourselves in terms of physical attractiveness

Question 10

What did Walster et al design?

Answer 10

Study to test matching hypothesis called ‘The computer dance’

Question 11

Procedure of the design?

Answer 11

Male and female students invited to dance - rated for physical attractiveness by objective observers and completed questionnaire about themselves
Told data about themselves and information would be used by a computer to decide their partner for evening
Actually paired randomly

Question 12

Findings?

Answer 12

Hypothesis - not supported
Most liked partners - most physically attractive

Question 13

What did Berschied et al find?

Answer 13

Replicated study - each participant was able to select their partner from varying degrees of attractiveness
Participants tended to choose partners who matched them in physical attractiveness

Question 14

Conclusion?

Answer 14

Tend to choose partners whose attractiveness matches our own
Choice of partner is a compromise - risk rejection in selecting most attractive people so we settle on those who are in our league physically

Question 15

EVAL - research support for halo effect

Answer 15

• Strength - physical attractiveness associated with halo effect
• Attractive people rated as more politically knowledgeable and competent
• Halo effect persisted even when participants knew the person had no particular expertise
• Implications for politics - dangers for democracy if politicians judged due to being physically attractive
• Palmer and Peterson

Question 16

EVAL - evolutionary explanation

Answer 16

• Some female features considered attractive across cultures - white hispanic and asian men rated as highly attractive
• Small nose, large eyes, prominent cheekbones, high eyebrows
• Cunningham et al
• What is considered physically attractive consistent across different societies
• Symmetry is a sign of genetic fitness
• Makes sense at evolutionary level

Question 17

EVAL - research challenging the matching hypothesis

Answer 17

• Limitation - matching hypothesis not supported by real-world research
• Taylor et al - studied activity logs of popular online dating site
• Real-world test - measures actual date choices not just preferences
• Online daters sought partners who were more physically attractive than them
• Undermines validity as contradicts central prediction

Question 18

Counterpoint

Answer 18

• Choosing individuals for dating could be considered different situation from selecting partner for romantic relationship
• Meta-analysis of 17 studies - Feingold
• Significant correlation in ratings of physical attractiveness between romantic partners
• Support for matching hypothesis from studies of real-world established romantic partners

Question 19

EVAL - individual differences

Answer 19

• Most of evidence highlights role of physical attractiveness in initial formation of romantic relationships
• Evidence some people to not attach much importance to attractiveness
• Touhey - measured sexist attitudes of men and women (MACHO scale)
• Low scores - relatively unaffected by physical attractiveness when judging the likeability of potential partners