lecture 9 Flashcards
What is attraction
immediate and positive emotional and/or behavioral response to someone
Behavioral attraction component of attraction
I would like to meet this person
affect component
reflecting the quality of one’s subjective response
Physical attractiveness
Very valued in people
People will look at attractive faces for longer
Across the board people who are more attractive get more attention
When given a choice, the hotter the better
Heterosexual men tend to value it more than women
This is because physical attractiveness in women is seen as youthfulness and fertility (genetic component)
This isn’t the case for perceptions of men
Physical attractiveness contributors
Symmetry, body size/proportions, facial attractiveness
What causes certain characteristics to be considered attractive?
Major contributors:
Biology
Culture
Sexual selection
evolution of adaptive traits to increase reproductive advantage
These can be detrimental to survival
Ie peacocks feather colors can attract predators, but female peacocks are attracted to the color
Theory of sexual selection
our mating behavior as humans reflects our preferences for traits that have been selected for
Parental Investment theory
Women have greater minimal obligatory investment when having children
women decide to have a child they are going through much more than men)
Women tend to be the choosier sex when deciding on a partner because consequences are much more severe
Sexual Strategies Theory:
Men and women face different adaptive problems in reproductions
Men want to spread their seed to as many women as possible
Men want to minimize commitment ,shorter relationships
Women are choosy and want a man that can give resources, can actually care for children
culture:Historically:
Female voluptuousness associated with femininity and fertility
Male masculinity associated with lower class
~Laborers and farmers
More recently
femininity-> skinny, sexuality without the ties of motherhood, career (sexiness for its own sake, whereas historically sexiness was viewed as wanting to bear children)
Masculinity and affluence associated with strength and muscularity
Male attractiveness (physical attractiveness)
Women rate appearance as less important than men do
However women report being more sexuality attracted to taller men
Correlated to the preference for males who demonstrate confidence, physical strength, and a powerful bearing
Shorter men are viewed as unattractive for both casual and intended long-term relationships
Women do have preference for muscularity
Men tend to overestimate the amount of muscle considered ideal by women
Women prefer more masculine men during the fertile period of the menstrual cycle and more feminine men during other part of the cycle
Meta analyses found that this finding is not as robust, and many studies failed to replicate the findings
Female attractiveness(physical attractiveness)
Men report being more attracted to younger women across cultures
Across 37 cultures, prefer mate who is, on average 2.5 years younger than them
Preference of youthful appearing features: full lips, clear smooth skin, clear eyes, lustrous hair, and good muscle tone
Larger breasts-signal reproductive maturity and fertility
However in the US, women overestimate:
1)men’s preferences for thinness in a mate
2)men’s preferences for large breasts
Waist Hip Ratio
Men prefer a women with a 0.7 waist to hip ratio
Waist to hip ratio: ratio of the circumference of the waist to circumference of the hips
On average, a female WHR of 0.7 is rated as most attractive by hetero men and lesbians
WHR Related to health:
Optimal ratio (for general health and fertility):
Women: 0.7
Men:0.9
Variation among cultures:
China: 0.6
South america and africa: 0.8-0.9 from front; 0.6 from side
Male attractiveness: Waist to Shoulder Ratio
WSR= circumference waist/circumference shoulders
Ideal waist shoulder ratio preferred by women and gay men is 0.75 or lower
Broad shoulder and muscles perceived to be associated with increased testosterone, masculinity
Facial Symmetry
theories
More facial symmetry is Indicator of genetic fitness
Genes are designed to produce to perfect symmetrical copies of us
Perceptual bias:
People prefer symmetry, because symmetrical things are easier to process