Physical Attractiveness 🤘💉💉 Flashcards
How do physical things help in relations
Physical attractiveness affects attraction in romantic relationships. Men place a great deal on physical attractiveness when choosing a female partner in the short and long term, research has shown that physical attractiveness is also very important for females when choosing a males partner, especially in the short term, it is less so in the long term. What’s considered physically attractive also varies across culture and time
What is the Halo effect
When the general impression of a person is incorrectly formed from one characteristic alone. Physically attractive people are often seen as more sociable, optimistic, successful and trustworthy. People tend to behave positively towards people who are physically attractive and this creates a self fulfilling prophecy where the physically attractive person behaviours even more positively because of the positive attention they receive
Evaluation of the Halo effect
+Palmer and Peterson found that physically attractive n people were rated as more politically knowledgable than unattractive people. The halo effect was so powerful that it persisted when participants found out that the physically attractive had no political expertise
- however towhey asked male and female participants to rate how much they liked an individual based on a photograph. They also completed a MACHO test whihc measured sexist attitudes and behaviour. Those who scored high on MACHO test liked physical attractiveness. And opposite. Therefore there are individual differences in terms of the importance that people place on attractiveness in terms of relationships
What is the matching hypothesis
When initiation romantic relationships, individuals seek partners that have the same social desirability as themselves. Physical attractiveness is the major accessible factor in rating each other prior to a relationship. Most people prefer to be with someone physically attractive but in order to not be rejected, many people will approach others who are a similar level of attractiveness to themselves,
Strength matching hypoth
Feingold found supportive evidence for the matching hypothesis by carrying out a meta analysis of 17 studies using real life couples. He established a strong positive correlation between partners ratings of physical attractiveness just as predicted by the matching hypothesis
Weakness matching hypoth
Walster (1966) invited 752 first-year students at the University of Minnesota to attend a dance party. They were randomly matched to a partner; however, when students were picking up their tickets, they were secretly judged by a panel in terms of physical attractiveness. At the dance party, and 4 to 6 months later, students were asked whether they found their partner attractive and whether they would like to go on a second date with them. Contrary to the matching hypothesis students expressed higher appreciation of their partner if the partner was attractive, regardless of their own level of attractiveness.
Sometimes a very physically attractive person forms a relationship with an unattractive person. Often a rebalance of traits will occur, whereby the less physically attractive person has some other traits to make up for their lack of physical attractiveness (e.g. being rich, having a high status or great personality). This is called complex matching whereby a very attractive person forms a relationship with an unattractive person.
