Physical Attraction Flashcards
What is physical attraction?
An important factor in the formation of romantic relationships.
The term usually applied specifically to how appealing we find a person’s face.
Outline the research by Shackelford and Larsen in 1997.
Found that people with symmetrical faces are rated as more attractive.
This is may have been because it is an honest signal of genetic fitness. (raw biologically unchangeable feature).
Outline Cartwright’s research from 2000.
Symmetrical faces are preferred as symmetry equates with fitness
Outline McNulty et al’s research from 2008.
Found evidence that the initial attractiveness that brought the partners together continued to be an important feature of the relationships after marriage.
What can we conclude from this? Long term compared to other factors such as filter theory, that act as more as an initial set of guidelines.
Outline Dion et al’s research from 1972.
Found that physically attractive people are consistently rated as kind, strong, sociable and successful compared with unattractive people.
The belief that good-looking people probably have these characteristics makes them even more attractive to us, so we behave positively towards them.
This is an example of the halo effect.
Outline the case study of Ted Bundy.
(Physical attraction).
Deemed physically attractive, and as a result was less inclined to be a suspect for his crimes.
During his murder trials, even groupies attend as they were infatuated with him.
What did Walster et al state in 1966.
The hypothesis states people choose romantic partners who are roughly of similar physical attractiveness to each other.
To do this we have to make a realistic judgement about our own ‘value’ to a potential partner.
Therefore our choice of partner is a compromise.
Walster stated that we desire the most physically attractive partner possible for all sorts of evolutionary, social, cultural and psychological reasons. Why is this compromised? How?
We select a compromise, someone who is of the same level of physical attractiveness as us.
We balance this against the wish to avoid being rejected by someone ‘out of our league’.
Why is it said that people feel more secure with someone of equal attractiveness?
If you are always with someone more attractive than you, then you feel less attractive yourself, they may also have greater access to other options (mates).
Walster’s original matching hypothesis proposed what?
People tend to pair up with others of similar social desirability, and the concept of social desirability has become synonymous with physical attractiveness alone.
Walster’s original matching hypothesis proposed that people tend to pair up with others of similar social desirability, and the concept of social desirability has become synonymous with physical attractiveness alone.
How did Whelan and Boxer (2008) challenge this?
Whelan and Boxer (2008) suggested that people come into a relationship offering many desirable characteristics, perhaps compensating for a lack of physical attractiveness with an attractive personality, status, money etc.
Walster’s matching hypothesis was challenged by Whelan and Boxer - (people come into a relationship offering desirable characteristics, compensating for a lack of physical attractiveness with an attractive personality etc.).
What does this mean for matching hypothesis?
Allows for more open matching, shows there are more than just physical attraction.
Individuals differences create greater opportunities.
Outline Walster’s computer dance study (version 1), from 1966.
Tested the matching hypothesis by inviting university students to a ‘get acquainted’ dance.
Each student was asked to complete a questionnaire so that a suitable partner could be picked for them (they had been already surreptitiously rated for physical attractiveness by a group of researchers).
In fact, the pairing was done randomly.
They were introduced to their ‘date’ and spent time with them at the dance.
At the end of the evening, they were asked to evaluate their partner and to comment on whether they would like to meet up with them again.
The researchers found that, regardless of their own level of physical attractiveness, participants reacted more positively to physically attractive dates and were more likely to try to arrange subsequent dates with them.
In this study the ‘physical attractiveness effect was greater than any ‘matching effect’ or any concerns about rejection.
Outline Walster’s computer dance study (version 2), from 1969.
Walster carried out an extension to this study, but this time she ensured that participants had time to mix before the event so that they had time to meet ‘naturally’, (thus making the study closer to real-life conditions).
The results of this study supported the matching hypothesis, in that participants paired up with people who were perceived by researchers (as well perhaps as themselves) to be of a similar level of attractiveness.
Evaluate Walster’s computer dance study (version 1), from 1966.
Study was based on subjective results, as it was the experimenter’s viewpoints on physical attraction.
The participants did not matched themselves freely, so the study does not investigate what it aims to investigate.
