Physical attractiveness

• what does it mean to be physically attractive?


  how appealing we find someone's face.

  we form romantic relationships with the most attractive people

  Shackelford and Larsen 1997
• what did Shackelford and Larsen do?


  they conducted a study into physical attractiveness where they found that people with more symmetrical faces are considered more attractive as well as people with baby-like faces.

  they also said that what the person looks like is important at the start of the relationship and continues after marriage.
• what is the halo effect?


  the halo effect describes how we have perceived ideas about the personality traits attractive people must have, these are universally positive.
• who conducted a study based on the halo effect?


  Dion et al.
• what did Dion et al. say?


  he said that ''what is beautiful is good'' he said that beautiful people are consistently rated as being kind, strong, sociable and successful.
• what is the matching hypothesis?


  The matching hypothesis suggests that people are more likely to form romantic relationships with individuals who are similar to them in terms of attractiveness and other characteristics.
• who outlines the matching hypothesis theory?


  Waister 1969
• what did Waister say about why the matching hypothesis is a thing?


  people want to date attractive people but are afraid of rejection

  the possibility of rejection makes people go for people less attractive than them.

  most attractive people pair off and are ''off the market''
• what research supports the halo effect?


  Palmer and Peterson 2012
• what did Palmer and Peterson say?


  that psychically attractive people were rated as more politically knowledgeable and competent than unattractive people
• what are some individual differences that disagree with the theories of physical attractiveness?


  Cultural norms, personal preferences, and individual experiences.
• who did the study for individual differences that disputes this?

  Towhey 1979

  he gave participants a Macho scale to measure sexist attitudes, the higher they rated the more influenced they are by physical attractiveness.
• what is some research that supports matching hypothesis?


  Feingold 1988
• what did Feingold do?


  he conducted a meta-analysis of 17 different studies and he found a significant correlation between the rating of attractiveness and romantic partners.
• what cultural influences had an impact on physical attractiveness?


  Media, beauty standards, however, the idea of being 'physically attractive' is universally consistent.

  Cunningham
• what did Cunningham vs Wheeler and Kim do and what did they have to do with cultural influence?


  he found that in white, Hispanic and Asian people large eyes, prominent cheekbones and a small nose are attractive. whereas, Wheeler and Kim found that Korean and American students found attractive people to be more trustworthy and mature.
• what does Cunningham and Wheeler and Kim say about the different cultures?


  collectivist cultures are just as more likely to stereotype than individualist cultures.
• what are some criticisms of the matching hypothesis theory?


  its not supported by real world research

  Taylor et al. 2011
• what did Taylor et al. study?


  he studied that matching hypothesis in the real world where he looked at the activity of popular online dating sites. where he found that people were more likely to like someone who was more attractive. this suggests that people aren't afraid of rejection because it isnt face to face rejection.