Chapter 9 LECTURE Part 1 Flashcards
Buss and Barnes did this study looking at how men and women emphasize certain traits for their partner. They ranked them in order o importance. what were the findings?
both men and women ranked 1. kind and understanding
- exciting personality
- intelligent as their top three
men ranked 4. physically attractive, whereas women 4th was healthy.
Findings by Boxer et al’s study that looked how how important qualities in a mate changed over time
- they found that trait ranking was similar over time, but a slight increase in importance of financial stability.
outline the study done by Water [Hatfield] in 1966 who showed that even though we don’t rank physical attractiveness as a top quality, it is actually more important than we think
- organized a welcome week dance.
- had students fill out questionnaires about their personalities and attitudes. Also had observers ranking all the pts on their attractiveness.
- students were told that their responses to the questionnaire would be entered into a computer, and that they’ll be matched with someone on the night of the dane.
- in reality, she just randomly matched males and females
- the coules spend 2.5 hours talking and dancing. when theres and intermission, they’re given questionnaires to rank their date– “do you like the person you’ve paired with’?
- she wanted to see what predicts attraction by getting pts to fill out questionnaire.
FINDINGS: the only thing that predicted attraction to dance partner was how physically attracted they were to their partner. attitude or personality scales did not predict.
- true for both women and men.
- this study was replicated with gay patients and the findings were the same.
A study done by dion and Berscheid indicated the importance of attractiveness in their study done on preschool children.
- they thought that looks matter already occurs at an early age, not just at the dating scene.
- they went to a nursery school
- had uni students rank the kids in terms of cuteness.
- someone previously did a study on how the kids interacted with the other kids, and which kid were popular.
- there was a correlation with “cuteness” and popularity ranking, even in nursery school.
OVERALL, it seems as though attractiveness is ranked lower, but it appears that it is more important than we think.
4 reasons as to why attractiveness is so important
- evolutionary reasons. indicates health and reproductivity
- aesthetics: good looking people are more aesthetically pleasing to look at
- “beautiful is good” hypothesis: tendency to assume that good looking people are nicer. We attribute positive queslities to attractive people.
- positive reflection: it reflects positively on us to be seen with attractive people.
contrast to the beautiful is good hypothesis
when good looking people commit crimes, if the jury thinks you used your good looks to help commit the crime, you will be sentences more harshly.
are attractive people actually more intelligent/successful/exciting?
no. people who are attractive are actually not nicer or interesting than others. there is some evidence though that good looking people have better social skills though.
why may people have more social skills if they are attractive?
they get more attention paid to them as babies.
Signal and Landy did the study to answer the question: if a really average person has a really attractive partner, do we make an assumption that they have a really great personality? outline the study
- they had average looking male confederate sitting in the lab next to a woman confedate. They look as though they’re both waiting for an experiment.
- pt comes in and sees couple there.
2 conditions:
1) attractive woman vs unattractive woman
2) associated vs unassociated: whether the man and woman seemed to be in a relationship
- experimenter comes in and says: are you guys here for the experiment?
in associated condition: she pretends average guy is her boyfriend.
in unassociated condition: she says she’s waiting for her boyfriend.
-then, the experimenter puts the average male with the pt. the woman is not being asked Qs.
- experimenter says “before we start, I just want to get your perspectives on each other”
FINDINGS: when it appears that the average guy is in a relationship with the woman, the pt ranked them as having good personality rather than when he was unassociated.
therefore, it is seen that having an attractive mate is associated with you having a good personality.
Explain the Bartal and Sax follow up experiment to the original Landy Associated with hot person = good personality study. Outline sex differences.
- took photos of women and men and paired them up. There were different combos of attractiveness ( not hot + hot) (hot + hot) etc.
- told the participants that there were married couples
- told the pts to rate the personality of the people in the photos
FINDINGS
- found that men were rated more + when he was paired with an attractive woman.
- woman ratings were not affected by the attractiveness of tier male partners.
- women ratings depended on their OWN ATTRACTIVENESS.
3 main points about attraction
- initial judgements of peoples character is strongly influenced by their attractiveness. lots of assumptions are being made based on appearance
- both women and men who are attractive are rated more positively than those who are less attractive– but physical attractiveness has a larger impact on the perception of women
- these findings are limited to FIRST IMPRESSIONS.
TF: attractiveness is important regardless of the number of times you interact with the person
FALSE. attraction assumptions are limited to FIRST IMPRESSIONS. We are most likely to leap to conclusions super early on, but as we get to know people and who they’re really like, their appearance becomes less important.
Main findings atom Voraur and Ratners 6 experiments
- found that when we meet someone to whom were attracted to, we tend NOT to make the first move because we fear rejection.
- when the other person doesn’t make the first move, we assume it’s because that person isn’t interest in us.
- research shows that you’re not hearing from the other person because that person is also afraid of rejection (same reason as you)
therefor, a lot of possible relationships end before they start. - moral of story: when you’re interested in someone, the other person may also be interested in you. but you are both too nervous.
Explain the study done by Cunningham’s “Opening Gambits” which looked at effected approaches/pick up lines in terms of trying to figure out what to say to a person when you DO want to make the first move?
- had male confederate who is described as tall, medium in attractiveness.
- confederate goes to different bars: trained to appear friendly and sincere while delivering opening pick up lines.
6 lines are divided into categories:
1) DIRECT APPRAOCH: “i’m a little embarrass about this, but I’d like to meet you” or “it took a lot of nerve to approach you, could I at least ask what your name is?”
- INNOCUOUS: “hi” “what do you think of the band”
- CUTE FLIPPANT: “ you remind me of someone I used to date” “bet I can outdrink you”
- confederate recorded woman reaction as positive or negative. positive if woman smiles or maintains eye contact. negative if she turns away from you, if she walks away from you, or makes a negative comment.
FINDINGS: WOMEN responded to the male confederate most with DIRECT RESPONSE or INNOCUOUS REPSONSE (67 or 62%), and very little with cute flippant (19%)
findings when the pick up line study was done with a woman confederate to male participants instead of reverse
- men responded less to DIRECT RESPONSE (81% ), and 100% of the time to both INNOCUOUS AND CUTE FLIPPANT.
