Attractiveness, matching hypothesis

Question 1

attraction

Answer 1

Attraction: We are more attracted to people who are physically good looking.
Evolutionary explanation is physical indications of health, facial symmetry and recourses indicate good genes, we want the best genes possible for our offspring.

Question 2

halo effect

Answer 2

Halo effect: People with the physical characteristic of physical attractiveness are also assumed to be as successful in other areas of life i.e. intelligent, hardworking, sociable. This can result in others interacting more positively towards them, resulting in them actually becoming more successful.

Question 3

matching hypothesis

Answer 3

Matching Hypothesis: We cannot all mate with the most attractive members of our population.
• We realistically appraise our own attractiveness in relationship to others.
• We look for romantic partners who are at a similar level of attractiveness.
• We avoid the pain of rejection by not chasing partners we see as too attractive.
• We retain our partners by not choosing someone who will leave us for someone else.

Question 4

Strength-Murstein matching photographs

Answer 4

Used photographs of 197 couples (engaged or dating). Photographs of each partner alone were used so each person could be judged individually. Eight judges rated the individual photographs according to attractiveness. Found photographs of couples were consistently given a similar attractiveness rating compared to randomly matched pairs.

Suggests that as predicted by the matching hypothesis individuals are highly likely to select partners who are judged by others to be a similar level of attractiveness as themselves.

supported by: Feingold (1988) completed a meta-analysis including 18 studies on the matching hypothesis containing a total of 1644 couples and found an overall positive correlation in the attractiveness ratings of couples.

Question 5

Limitation-shallow explanation

Answer 5

The matching hypothesis can be seen as a very shallow explanation of how humans select a mate, while attractiveness may be a factor, most people would like to think it’s not the most important. Physical factors may be more important in initial attraction however the role of physical features in continuing attraction may be more limited. Matching hypothesis may give some explanation for initial partner selection, however theories of relationship exchange that include potential costs and benefits may give a better explanation for mate selection over the long term.

Question 6

strength-more valid

Answer 6

• It may be that the matching hypothesis theory is becoming more valid, as online dating websites and apps depend heavily on visual cues for partner selection. This may be providing more feedback for people to base their own attractiveness rating.

Question 7

strength-halo effect

Answer 7

• The Halo effect appears to apply beyond romantic relationships. It was found that defendants in court who are attractive are likely to receive lower sentences than less attractive defendants by juries, indicating attractiveness implied innocence (Landy and Aronson 1969), and Todorov (2005) found the winners and losers of American elections could be predicted on the basis one second of participant looking at pictures and picking the person who looked most competent.