factors affecting attraction:physical attractivness Flashcards
what did shackleford and larsen find?
-people with symmetrical faces are more likely to be rated as attractive
-facial symmetry sign of genetic fitness
-people are attracted to baby faces(neotenous)
e.g widely separated eyes, small chin
-trigger protective/caring instinct
what did Mcnaulty find?
-intial attractivness that brought partners tg is an important and continues as valued feature of RS
-even after marriage for years
what was the halo effect
-dion et al found people rated ‘physically attracted’ are seen as kind, strong, sociable
-we often behave more positively towards ppl we see as attractive
-and the belief that they have these characterstics makes them more attractive
self fulfilling prophecy^
how do psycholgists overview the halo effect?
-it has a disproportionate infulence on our judgements of a persons attributes for exmaple their personality
what was walster research on the matching hypothesis?
-we look for partners who have similar attractivness to us
-and similar in terms of intelligence, personality instead of the most appealing
-designed ‘the computer dance’
what was the procedure of the matching hypothesis
-male and females invited to dance
-rated for phsyical attractivness by objective observers
-completed a questioannaire on themselves(personality etc)
-info used by comp to choose their partner for the evening (but were acc paired randomly)
what were the findings of the matching hypothesis
-hypothesis wasent supported
-most liked partners were most attarctive rather than taking their own level of attractivness into account
what did Berscheid et al do?
-replicated the study byt partners able to choose their own partner from people who varied in degrees of attarctivness
-Ps tended to choose partners who matched them in physical attractivness
what were the conclusions from walsters study?
-tend to choose partners who match our attractivness
-choice of a partner is a compromise
we can risk rejection if select most attarctive or out of league
issues w the study?
-subjective judgements used
-deception = Ps deceived
-validity issues- self report
-told if pretty or ugly (ethical conern- low self esteem)
-lots of EVs and demand characterstics
was the study useful?
-attarctviness is key in formation of romantic RS - real world app
what are some metholgical issues?
-ppl vary depending on clothes, makeup, hair
-culturally relevant
-histroical bias- times change
-photos differ making someone look diff
strengths
(reserach support halo e)
-palmer and peetrson= those physically attarctive rated as more knowledgable
-even when those ppl had no expertise, the thought persisted
-dangers for the real world if beauty standards allow someone to enter poltics or not
(evolutionary explanations)
-cunnigham et al
-women w large eyes, small nose, high eyebrows were rated highly attractive by white, hispanic and asian
-whats considered physically attractive is consistent acrosss societies
-face symmetry= genetic fitness agreed in all cultures
(counterpoint to not supported by real world)
-choosing individuals for dating isnt the same as choosing for romantic RS
-Feingold carried out meta analysis of 17 studied and found signficant correlation in ratings of physical attractivness between romantic partners
-dating online may be js be a fantasy dont always get w them (even tho they seek more attractive)
weaknesses
(not supported by real world)
-taylor et al studied activity logs on dating site
-measured actual date choice not js prefernces
-keeps w the hypothesis conerned realstic as opposed to fanatsy choices
-found daters sough partners more physically attractive than them
-contradicts the matching hypothesis
how can we evaluate using individual differences
-some people dont see attractivness as an important factor
-Touhey measured sexist attitudes of men and women and found low scores were unaffected by PA when judging liability of pontential partners
