FAA: Physical Attractiveness

• The importance of physical attractiveness:

  • Shackelford and Larsen found that people with symmetrical faces are rated as more attractive. This is because it may be a signal of genetic fitness
  • People are also attracted to faces with neotenous features (baby-face) because these trigger a protective and caring instinct. This would be important for women wanting to reproduce
• The Halo effect:

  • Physical attractiveness is also important because we tend to believe that attractive people have positive personality traits
  • This is the physical attractiveness stereotype
  • E.g. Dion et al. Found that physically attractive people are constantly rated as kind, strong, sociable and successful compared to unattractive people
• The Matching Hypothesis:

  • This hypothesis suggests that people choose romantic partners who are roughly of similar physical attractiveness to each other
  • To do this we have to make a realistic judgement about our own ‘value’ to a potential partner
  • We all desire the most physically attractive partner possible 
  • HOWEVER, we balance this against the wish to avoid being rejected by someone ‘out of our league’ who might not find us physically attractive
• AO3:

  • A strength of the halo effect is that research appears to support the theory
  • Palmer and Peterson (2012) found that physically attractive people were rated as more politically knowledgeable and competent than unattractive people
  • This has implications for the political process because people may thing politicians are suitable for office just because they are physically attractive
  • It shows that physical attractiveness is an important factor in the formation of both romantic and non-romantic relationships
• AO3:

  • A limitation of the research suggesting that physical attractiveness is an important factor in attraction is that not all individuals think physical attractiveness is important.
  • Towhey (1979) found that those who scored higher on a scale of sexism cared more about physical attractiveness when choosing whether they liked an individual, whereas those who scored lower on the sexism scale cared less about physical attractiveness
  • This suggests that physical attractiveness is not always the most important factor for individuals when forming a relationship
• AO3:

  • A strength of the matching hypothesis is that research appears to support it
  • Feingold (1988) carried out a meta-analysis of 17 studies and found a significant correlation in ratings of attractiveness between romantic partners
  • This supports the matching hypothesis as it shows that individuals tend to choose romantic partners who are of a similar level of attractiveness to them. It also looked at actual couples, which is a more realistic approach.
• AO3:

  • Support for the importance of physical attractiveness in attraction comes from cross cultural research
  • Research by Cunningham et al. (1995) suggests that the features that are viewed as ‘attractive’ are the same across white, Hispanic and Asian males.
  • This suggests that physical attractiveness is important in the formation of relationships regardless of culture
  • Therefore, perhaps the features that we find attractive are due to evolution rather than culture