AO3

• A strength is that there is supporting evidence for the halo effect. Palmer and Peterson found that physically attractive people were rated more politically knowledgeable and competent than unattractive people. This would continue even if they were told that the ‘knowledgeable’ people actually had no expertise. This supports that a physically attractive persons’ face makes all other attributes seem positive, such as their knowledge level.
• A weakness is that there are contradictory studies. Taylor et al studied online dating activity logs, measuring real life dating and not fantasy preferences. This found that people sought dates with partners who were more physically attractive than themselves. This contradicts the theory's’ prediction that they choose someone on a similar level of attractiveness. However, Feingold found in a meta-analysis that there was a strong correlation between attractiveness between romantic partners. This would support the matching hypothesis from real world studies.
• A strength is that the theory may be more universal. Cunningham et al found that both individualist and collectivist cultures find similar features attractive (large eyes, high eyebrows and cheekbones). This means that though influence of attractiveness is affected by individual factors, what is considered ‘attractive’ remains consistent across both individualist and collectivist cultures.
• A weakness is that there are individual differences. Some people are not affected by attractiveness. For example, Touchey found that people with non-sexist attitudes were uninfluenced by physical attraction when judging the likeability of potential partners. This shows that the impact of physical attractiveness is moderated by other factors.