Physical attractiveness Flashcards
Define physical attractiveness.
how appealing we find another persons face to be. There is a general agreement within and across cultures about what is considered to be physically attractive.
Why are symmetrical faces seen as more physically attractive?
Shackleford and Larsen found that people with symmetrical faces are rated as more attractive as it is seen as an honest signal of genetic fitness.
Why are baby faces seen as more physically attractive?
People are attracted to people with ‘baby-faces’ (neotenous) as these trigger a protective or caring instinct which is a valuable resource for females wanting to reproduce. Neotenous features include widely separated and large eyes, a delicate chin and a small nose.
Word for ‘baby face’
Neotenous
What is the halo effect?
The halo effect describes how one distinguishable factor (e.g physical attractiveness) tends to have a disproportionate influence on our judgements of a persons other attributes. For example, their personality.
What is the matching hypothesis?
Although we find physical attractiveness to be desirable, common-sense tells us we cannot just form relationships with the most attractive people as we fear rejection. The hypothesis states that people chose romantic partners who are roughly of similar physical attractiveness to them. To do this we have to make realistic judgement about our own ‘value’ to a potential partner. Our choice of a partner is basically a compromise as we ‘match’ people who have similar levels of attractiveness to us.
Give a strength of physical attractiveness (research support for the halo effect).
Supported by Palmer and Peterson who found that physically attractive people were rated as more politically knowledgable and competent than unattractive people. The halo effect was so strong that it persisted even when participants knew these ‘knowledgeable’ people had no particular expertise. The fact that attractive people were consistently rated higher on these characteristics compared to unattractive people supports the Halo effect.
Strength of physical attractiveness. (research support for the matching hypothesis).
There is research to support the matching hypothesis such as Feingold who carried out meta-analysis of 17 studies using real-life couples. They found a strong correlation between partners ratings of attractiveness. This shows that people tend to choose a partner who has a similar level of physical attractiveness to themselves. This is what the matching hypothesis predicts.
Limitation of research into physical attractiveness.
Waltser et al conducted an experiment on 757 first-year students who were invited to a dance party. They were randomly matched to a partner however when they arrived, they were secretly judged by a panel based on attractiveness. The results showed that when they were asked 4-6months later if they were happy with their partner, when their partner was more attractive than them, the participants were happier.
Althugh this study, failed to prove the matching hypothesis to be accurate, this could have been due to the faults the study. For example, the panel may have had different views about physical attractiveness.
