Factors Affecting Attraction: Physical Attractiveness Flashcards
What is physical attractiveness?
How appealing a persons face is. An important factor when forming romantic relationships.
Why are people with symmetrical faces considered more attractive?
It’s a sign of genetic fitness.
Why do people find baby (neotenous) faces more attractive?
It’s a sign of youth and higher fertility. They also trigger a protective and caring instinct.
Describe the halo effect.
Why might it be negative?
Where physical attractiveness gives us preconceived ideas about a person’s personality trait, that are usually positive. This means attractiveness has a disproportionate influence on our judgements of a persons attributes.
How might the halo effect lead to a self fulfilling prophecy?
Believing that someone is automatically more intelligent/kinder etc as a result of their attractiveness may lead to person behaving in this way more often.
What does the matching hypothesis state?
People choose romantic partners who are roughly of a similar attractiveness to themselves.
How do people select a romantic partner of similar attractiveness to themselves?
They rate their own attractiveness and compare this rating to other people we find attractive. If their rating is similar to our own we will select them.
Why do we look for people who are more socially desirable?
What is social desirability?
We want to date someone who is more socially desirable.
For example, more intelligent, kind, funny etc
Why must partners be matched in terms of their social desirability?
If partners are matched then it leads to a longer, happier relationship.
Feingold carried out a meta analysis of how many studies investigating a correlation between what 2 co variables?
17 studies.
Found a correlation between ratings of physical attractiveness between partners.
Explain the strength that the role of physical attractiveness is universal.
How did Asian and Hispanic men in Cunningham’s study all rate women with large eys, small nose, prominent cheekbones etc?
What does this suggest about perceptions of attractiveness across cultures?
How does attractiveness link with genetics and evolution?
Cunningham found that women who had features of large eyes, prominent cheekbones, small nose and high eyebrows were rated as highly attractive by white, Hispanic and Asian men. The researchers concluded that what is considered physically attractive is remarkably consistent across different societies. Attractive features (symmetry) are a sign of genetic fitness and therefore perpetuated similarly in all cultures (sexual selection). Therefore, the importance of physical attractiveness makes sense at an evolutionary level.
Explain the limitation that the matching hypothesis is not supported by real world research.
Taylor studied activity logs from what type of app? Why does this research measure as opposed to preferences and why is it good?
Explain the contradictory evidence Taylor found.
Why does this undermine the validity of the matching hypothesis?
On the other hand, what did Feingold say that may disprove Taylor’s findings?
For example, Taylor studied the activity logs of a popular online dating app. This was a real-world test of the matching hypothesis because it measured actual date choices and not merely preferences. This is in keeping with the original hypothesis which concerned realistic as opposed to fantasy choices. The researchers found that online daters sought meetings with potential partners who were more physically attractive than them. This undermines the validity of the matching hypothesis because it contradicts the central prediction about matching attractiveness. On the other hand, Feingold said that just because online daters seek more attractive people, it does not mean that they get them.
Explain the limitation that research into physical attractiveness is culturally specific.
Use the example that attractiveness is not relevant in arranged marriages.
What is more important for arranged marriages?
Therefore, what does the physical attractiveness explanation not apply to?
There is a failure to recognize many forms of relationship that are not necessarily governed by physical attraction. For example, in arranged marriages, attractiveness plays minimal role. Here it is the families of the suitors that are considered and the benefits that the joining of 2 households can bring to each other. This suggests that the physical attractiveness explanation may not be applicable across all cultures.
Explain the limitation that the physical attractiveness explanation is reductionist.
The explanation does not take influence of ________ into account.
The explanation also fails to explain people who are attractive but disliked as a result of their… (Give an example)
What does this suggest about the physical attractiveness explanation?
For example, the explanation doesn’t take the role of 3rd parties into account, such as the effect of friends and family. This explanation also fails to account for individuals that people meet that are physically attractive but disliked because of their attitude or body language. For example, the person may be viewed as vain or self-obsessed despite their attractive exterior, hence people may choose not to form a relationship with them. This suggests that physical attractiveness is an oversimplification explanation of interpersonal attraction.
