Physical attractiveness

• Physical attractiveness: An important factor in affecting the formation of romantic relationships. This term usually applies to how appealing we find another persons face. There is a general agreement on what we find attractive as a society and an assumption that we seek to form relationships with the most attractive person available.
• Matching hypothesis: Belief that we do not select the most attractive person, instead we select the person who most closely matches us in physical attractiveness. We take into account our own value when looking for a partner.
• The halo effect: Attractiveness matters because we have preconceived ideas about people who are attractive. For example, we believe they are nice and positive.
• Dion et al (halo effect): Found that attractive people were consistently rated as being more kind, strong and sociable compared to unattractive people. This belief that they behave better causes us to view them even more highly then before.
• Walster and Walster (1969): Suggest we look for partners who are more similar to ourselves in terms of physical attractiveness.
• Walster et al (1966)- Computer dance procedure:

  • Male and female students were invited to a dance.
  • They were rated for physical attractiveness by objective observers at the start and they also completed a questionnaire about themselves.
  • They were told this information was used to pair them up with another person at the dance, they were in fact paired randomly.
• Walster et al (1966)- Computer dance findings:

  • Their hypothesis was wrong.
  • The most liked partners were also the most physically attractive rather tan people taking into account their own attractiveness.
• Berscheid et al (1971)- Computer dance replication:

  • Each participant selected their own partner.
  • It was found that they tended to choose partners who matched them in physical attractiveness.
• Walster et al (1966)- Computer dance conclusions:

  • We tend to seek out partners who match us in attractiveness
  • Partner choice is a compromise as we don't want to risk being rejected by someone 'out of our league'
• Evaluation- Research support for halo effect:

  • Palmer and Peterson (2012) found that physically attractive people were rated as more politically knowledgeable even if the participants knew the people had no expertise on it.
  • This has a big impact on the democracy as people may only vote for attractive people.
• Evaluation- Individual differences:

  • Towhey (1979) gave participants a set of photos and information on other people and asked them to judge how much they would like to know the other person.
  • They also completed a questionnaire (the MACHO scale) designed to measure sexist behavior.
  • Those who were sexist were more influenced by attractiveness.
  • Shows its only an influence for some people.
• Evaluation- Research supporting matching hypothesis:

  • Feingold (1988) carried out a meta-analysis of 17 studies and found a correlation in ratings of attractiveness between romantic partners.
  • This study is valid as it used actual partners and used many different studies.
• Evaluation- evolutionary explanations:

  • Cunningham (1995) found certain features that were attractive across all cultures.
  • Shows that the theory is supported across collectivist and individualistic cultures.
  • Every culture perceived these people to be more trustworthy.
• Evaluation-Research contradicting the matching hypothesis:

  • Taylor (2011) studied activity logs of dating sites.
  • Found people sought after those more attractive than them.
  • Valid because it used real preference choices.