Physical Attractiveness: Evaluate

Question 1

Speed dating and the challenge to traditional views of attraction -
East wick and Finkel (2008)

Answer 1

although men value physical attractiveness, this may not predict real life choices

used evidence from speed dating where participants initially showed traditional sex differences in an ideal partner

their ideal preferences failed to predict what inspired their actual behaviour at the event

findings: there were no significant sex differences in choosing a partner but instead was based on the partners characters and romantic attraction

Question 2

Complex Matching:
Sprecher and Hatfield (2009)
(Challenge to the ‘Matching Hypothesis’)

Answer 2

people come into a relationship offering many desirable qualities where physical attractiveness is only one

a person may compensate a lack of attractiveness with other desirable qualities e.g. personality or money = complex matching

thus, people are able to attract partners far more physically attractive than themselves

Question 3

Research support for sex differences in the importance of physical attractiveness -
Meltzer et al. (2014)

Answer 3

if attractiveness is more important for males then research should show that males with attractive partners are more attractive

Meltzer found that objective ratings of wives attractiveness was positively correlated with husbands satisfaction at the beginning of the relationship and for 4 years

objective ratings for husbands attractiveness were NOT related to wives marital satisfaction

Question 4

Matching may not be that important in initial attraction -

Taylor et al (2011)

Answer 4

in a study of online dating patterns, they found no evidence that dater decisions were driven by a similarity between their own and potential partner physical attractiveness

found that people don’t take their own physical attractiveness into account in the initial stages of attraction but instead aim for someone more desirable than themselves