chapter 10 attraction & relationships, happiness Flashcards
does attractiveness matter?
experiment results: for both men and women, physical attractiveness predicted enjoyment of the date at the end of the dance and their strength to see that person again. More attractive individuals judged their dates more harshly
may be that men are more likely than women to say that physical attractiveness means more to them, but when it comes to actual behavior, men and women are fairly similar in how they respond to physical attractiveness
physical attractiveness stereotype
-attain more prestigeous jobs
-be better & find better spouses
-have happier marriages
-have better social lives
-be happier
-have more desirable personalities
what is the halo effect?
cognitive bias in which the perception that an individual possesses one positive characteristic makes us more likely to believe that he/she also possesses other positive characteristics
height bias (physical attractiveness stereotype)
estimates of the man’s height increased overall by 5 inches
higher the rank (more attractive), the taller the participant thought the man is
is there such a thing as universal attractiveness?
yes: high level of inter-rate agreement
no: significant cross-cultural and historical disagreement
no: variability in physical adornments & ideal body weight
symmetry
symmetrical faces more attractive
evolutionary psychologists suggest that we are attracted to symmetrical features because they serve as markers of good health and reproductive fitness
averageness in facial features
more “average” facial features more attractive (not average looking, but features that appear to be of average size and dimension)
average is hot, but average of hot is even hotter, due to exaggerated sex-specific features
bodies
experiment: participants tasked to rate attractiveness of women
IV: whether participants were asked the qns before/after eating
results: hungry men preferred heavier women more than satiated men
attraction
- beauty: getting drawn in
- proximity: being there (availability and mere exposure)
-proximity: liking the ones we are near (imps determinant of who we are close to)
experiment: residents asked to name their 3 closest friends
results: 65% of the friends mentioned lived in the same building
within a building, 41% of residents had close friends who were their next door neighbours, 22% of residents had close friends who were two doors down, and 10% of residents had close friends who were from the opposite ends of the hallway
mere exposure effect
proximity works because of familiarity
the more often ppl are exposed to an object, the more positively they evaluate that object
but if the person in qn is obnoxious, then, the mere exposure u hv, the greater your dislike becomes
in the absence of negative qualities, familiarity tends to breed attraction & liking
mere exposure effect experiment
IV: no. of times participants saw the women
DV: students rating the women on traits at the end of the semester
results: more u see the person, more u find them attractive
proximity leads to familiarity, which leads to liking
bonding (either birds of a feather flock tgt OR opposites attract)
- similarity (liking ppl who like us)
-more similar someone’s opinions are to us, more u will like the person
-often drawn to those who look like us, to the point where ppl are even more likely to date others who are similar to them in terms of attractiveness level
-partners similar in physical attractiveness levels expressed most liking for each other (interpersonal liking: like someone more when ur physical attractiveness level is the same)
experiment: pairs of individuals asked to go on a date
IV: pairs selected based on attitudes (half of the pairs had similar attitudes, other half had dissimilar attitudes)
DV: attraction
results: birds of a feather flock tgt
- reciprocity (liking people who like us)
-js knowing that a person likes us fuels our attraction to that individual
-liking is so powerful that it can make up for the lack of similarity
relationship success
-unexpected facilitation: positive emotion (need to hv more of this)
-expected facilitation: no emotion
-unexpected disruption: negative emotion
“4 horsemen of the apocalypse”
-components of a r/s that can predict unsuccessful r/s (can predict with 80-90% accuracy whether a couple will still be married 15 years later)
1. criticism
2. defensiveness
3. stonewalling
4. contempt (sarcasm)
divorcing
-negative affect during conflict predicted early divorcing (but not predict later divorce)
-lack of positive affect in events-of-the-day and conflict discussions predicted later divorcing (but not early divorce)
