Physical Attractiveness

• Physical attractiveness


  an important feature in formation of romantic relationships.

  usually applies specifically to how appealing we find a person's face.
• Shackelford and Larsen


  found people with symmetrical faces are rated more attractive - honest signal of genetic fitness (difficult to fake)
• McNulty et al


  found evidence that the initial attractiveness that brought the partners together continued to be an important feature of the relationship after marriage, for at least several years.
• Halo effect


  suggests we have a tendency to associate highly attractive people with preconceived disproportionately positive characteristics , including personality and wealth, even though these factors may not be linked.

  more likely to view attractive people as kind, strong, sociable and successful compared to unattractive people.
• Matching Hypothesis


  key to a successful relationship is striking a balance between the attractiveness of a mate and realistic chances of attaining such a mate.

  hypothesis states that people choose romantic partners who roughly of similar attractiveness to each other.

  desire most physically attractive partner possibly for all sorts of evolutionary, social, cultural and psychological reasons. we balance this against the wish to avoid being rejected by someone 'out of our league'.
• Strength - Research Support for the Halo Effect

  Palmer and Peterson found that physically attractive people were rated as more politically knowledgeable and competent than unattractive people.

  halo effect was so powerful that it persisted even when ppts knew these 'knowledgeable' people had no particular experience.

  Important implications on the state of politics, where the success of some politician or political parties may be more easily or accurately explained as a result of the halo effect, rather than actual political expertise.
• Weakness - Individual Differences

  research has shown the halo effect and physical attractiveness may vary in its importance as a predictor of quality of early relationships depending on the individual.

  Towhey asked males and female ppts to rate how much they would like to a target individual based on their photograph and some biographical info.

  Towhey found that ppts who scored highly on the MACHO scale were more influenced by physical attractiveness of the target when making their judgement of likeability. low scores were less sensitive. (MACHO - designed to measure sexist attitudes).

  Limitation - suggests that physical attractiveness from an evolutionary perspective, doesn't provide same selection pressure for all individuals.
• Strength - Role of Cultural Influences

  Research shows that what is considered attractive is consistent across cultures.

  Cunningham et al found that large eyes, small nose and cheekbones were rated highly by white, Hispanic and Asian males.

  Wheeler and Kim found Korean and American students judged physically attractive people to more trustworthy, mature and friendly.

  Suggests that there is universal support for what is considered attractive, the influence of it varies but what is considered pretty is consistent so is generalisable to all cultures.
• Strength - Supporting Research for matching hypothesis


  Original research study attempted to confirm the matching hypothesis failed to do so (Walster)

  may be because the measurement of attractiveness wasn't reliable. the rates who judged the attractiveness of ppts only had a few seconds to do so.

  Feingold carried a meta-analysis of 17 studies and found a significant correlation in ratings of attractiveness between romantic partners.

  especially supportive of matching hypothesis as studies looked at actual partners - more realistic
• Weakness - Contradicting research for matching hypothesis

  Taylor studied activity logs of a popular online dating site.

  measured actual date choices rather than preferences.

  Online daters sought meetings with potential partners who were more attractive than them. seems they didn't consider their own level of attractiveness when making decisions about who to date

  - findings contradict the matching hypothesis as according to its predictions, website users should seek more dates with a person who is similar in term of attractiveness as it provides them with a better chance of being accepted by a potential partner.