Matching hypothesis + Physical attractiveness

• How does physical attractiveness affect mate choice?

  • The evolutionary theory says that physical attractiveness is important for men as it indicates a women’s health and fertility.
  • It is an indicator of good genes and being free from disease as well as youth. 
  • People with symmetrical faces are more attractive as it shows good genes being passed on if mating occurs.
  • Symmetry is seen as important as it is seen as difficult to fake it. 
  • Research shows that women look for physical attractiveness in men in short term relationships but look for it in serious relationships. 
• What is the matching hypothesis?

  • The importance of physical attractiveness is the matching hypothesis.
  • People will be attracted to similarly attractive people.
  • Although everyone finds physical attractiveness desirable,  we get with the most attractive people.
  • Our own attractiveness plays a role in picking a romantic partner. 
  • The desire to get an attractive person is balanced by rejection.
  • Once in a relationship, neither person will be comfortable if unequally matched.
  • More attractive person thinks they can settle for more and the plain one is insecure in the relationship.
• Positive evaluation regarding physical attractiveness?

  • Support for physical attractiveness comes from a longitudinal study by Meltzer et al (2014)
  • Aim - If there were sex differences in physical attractiveness in long relationships
  • Both had attractiveness rated at the beginning of study
  • They reported marital satisfaction 8 times over 4 years
  • They found that physical attractiveness of the women was correlated with the husband’s marital satisfaction
  • It was not correlated for women
  • This shows women place less importance on physical attractiveness as the evolutionary theory suggests 
• Criticism study for matching hypothesis?

  • Taylor et al (2011) aimed to investigate whether matching occurred in real life choices.
  • They studied the activity logs off a dating website and identified pairs of people who communicated with each other on the site.
  • It was found that users attempted to arrange a meeting with someone more physically attractive than them.
  • Therefore, this contradicts the matching hypothesis as website users did not go for similarly attractive people due to the chance it provides.
• Positive evaluation regarding multiple cultures?

  • Physical attractiveness is an important factor across cultures.
  • One study found that white, asian and hispanic males found females with prominent cheekbones, big eyes and small noses attractive. (Buss’ study may be used here as well)
  • This shows that choosing a partner is genetic aiding sexual selection.
  • This gives support to the nature side and shows that human behaviour is biological rather than environmental influences.
• Negative evaluation regarding individual differences in physical attractiveness?

  • There are individual differences in terms of importance on physical attractiveness.
  • Psychologists gave p’s photos of strangers and biographical info, they rated how much they liked them.
  • They found that people with more sexist attitudes found physical attractiveness more important.
  • This shows that physical attractiveness may not be important for all. 
• Negative evaluation regarding reductionism?

  • There are many other important factors when choosing a mate than just physical attractiveness.
  • Someone may compensate for lack of attractiveness with other factors like kindness and a charming personality.
  • The filter theory would argue that physical attractiveness is not important and proposes that similarity of attitudes determines who we find attractive.