Attraction, Love, & Communication Flashcards
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