factors affecting attraction: physical attractiveness

Question 1

define physical attractiveness

Answer 1

applies to how appealing we find someone’s face & theres a general agreement within/across cultures about what is considered physically attractive

Question 2

explanation for physical attractiveness

Answer 2

evolutionary theory related to sexual selection

Question 3

attractive characteristics

Answer 3

1. symmetrical face (shackleford & larsen 1997) = rated as more attractive as may be signal of genetic fitness
   - symetrical men report more sexual partners (penton voak et al.)
2. neotenous face = widely separated large eyes, small chin & nose - seem innocent/honest (protective instinct)
3. changes with menstrual cycle =
   - penton voak et al. (1999) found most of time females prefer softer, ‘feminised’ faces which display honesty & caring but at time of ovulation prefer masculinised faces (eg. facial hair, strong bone structure)
   - show high testosterone = high sperm count

Question 4

describe the halo effect

Answer 4

• dion & her colleagues (1972) ‘what is beautiful is good’
• correlation between someone’s perceived attractiveness & perceived personality
• ‘physical attractiveness stereotype’
• dion et al. found physically attractive people are consistently rated: kind, strong, sociable and successful (compared to unattractive people)
• belief good looking people have these characteristics make us act positively towards them = self-fulfilling prophecy
• halo effect = one distinguishing feature has disproportionate influence on judgement of someone’s attributes

Question 5

what does the matching hypothesis suggest

Answer 5

walster & walster 1969
suggests we look for partners who are similar to ourselves in terms of physical attractiveness (& personality, intelligence etc.)

Question 6

walster & walster 1969 ‘the computer dance’ - procedure

Answer 6

• 752 male/female uni students invited to dance
• rated for physical attractiveness by objective observers
• completed questionnaire about themselves
• told the data would be used by computer to decide partner for evening (they were paired randomly)

Question 7

walster & walster 1969 ‘the computer dance’ - results

Answer 7

• hypothesis not supported
• most liked partners were most physically attractive rather than taking own level of attractiveness into account
• however, berschield et al. replicated study but this time each participant able to select partner from people of varying degrees of attractiveness = participants tended to choose partners who matched them

Question 8

walster & walster 1969 ‘the computer dance’ - conclusions

Answer 8

• we tend to seek & choose partners who’s attractiveness matches our own
• thus, choice of partner is a compromise (risk rejection in selecting most attractive person)

Question 9

AO3 (+) research support that physical attractiveness associated with halo effect

Answer 9

E: palmer & peterson (2012)
- found physically attractive people rated more politically knowledgable & competent than unattractive people
- persisted even when participants knew these ‘knowledgable’ people had no particular expertise

T: implications for political process & suggest there’s dangers for democracy if politicians judged suitable for office based on physical attractiveness

Question 10

AO3 (+) role of physical attractiveness is research support for evolutionary processes

Answer 10

E: cunningham et al. (1995)
- found women with features of large eyes, prominent cheekbones, small noes & high eyebrows were rated highly attractive by white, hispanic & asian men
- researchers concluded that what’s considered physically attractive is consistent across different societies
- symmetry sign of genetic fitness/neotenous features & thus, perpetuated similarly across all cultures (sexual selection)

T: importance of physical attractiveness is useful for understanding at an evolutionary level

Question 11

AO3 (-) contradictory research which challenge the matching hypothesis

Answer 11

E: taylor et al. (2011)
- studied activity logs of popular online dating site
- real-world test of matching hypothesis as measured actual date choice & not preferences
- researchers found online daters sought meetings with potential partners who were more physically attractive than them

T: reduces validity of matching hypothesis as challengers central ideal around matching attractiveness

Question 12

AO3 (-) individual differences regarding importance of physical attractiveness

Answer 12

E: touhey (1979)
- measured sexist attitudes of men & women using MACHO scale
- found low scorers were mostly unaffected by physical attractiveness when judging potential partners