Physical Attractiveness

• Matching Hypothesis

  • Individuals seek out partners whose social desirability equals their own- must first assess their own value in the eyes of a potential romantic partner and then select the best available candidates who would be most likely to be attracted to them
  • Opting for partners of similar social desirability to themselves they can maximise their chances of a successful outcome
• Matching and physical attractiveness

  • Referred to those who choose similar physical attractiveness to be realistic choices- each individual is influenced by the chances of having their affection reciprocated
  • Realistic choices include a number of different factors- what person desires, whether the other person wants him/her in return or whether other desirable alternatives are available for either of them
  • In real life- mating within their league whether it is beneficial or not
• (Halo Effect)

  • Perceive more attractive people in a more positive light
  • Dion- attractive people were consistently rated as more kind, strong, successful and sociable than less attractive photographs
  • As we believe this about attractive people it could lead us to be more positive towards them leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy
• Key study: Walsier procedure 


  • Advertised a computer dance- Uni of Minnesota
  • 177 males and 170 females were randomly selected
  • 4 student accomplices surreptitiously rated each of them for physical attractiveness
  • Ppts were asked to complete a lengthy questionnaire and told that the data gathered from these questionnaires would be used to allocate their ideal partner for the evening of the dance
  • Pairing was completely randomised- during the intermission ppts were asked to complete a questionnaire about their dates with a follow-up questionnaire distributed 6 months after the dance
• Key study: Walsier findings


  • Didn’t support matching hypothesis
  • Once participants met their dates and regardless of their own physical attractiveness they responded more positively to physically attractive dates and were more likely to subsequently try to arrange dates with them if they were physically attractive
  • Other factors didn’t affect the liking the dates or any subsequent attempts to date them
• Complex Matching 


  • Sprecher and Hatfield: people come to a relationship offering many desirable characteristics of which physical attractiveness is only 1
  • Person may compensate for a lack of physical attractiveness with other desirable qualities- charming personality, kindness, status, money which is known as complex matching
  • People are able to attract partners for more physically attractive than themselves by offering compensatory assets
• Research support for sex differences in the importance of physical attractiveness

  • Meltzer: objective rating of wives’ attractiveness were positively related to levels of husbands’ satisfaction at the beginning of the marriage and remained that way over at least the first 4 years of marriage
  • In contrast- objective ratings of husbands’ physical attractiveness were not related to wives marital satisfaction either initially or over time
• Matching may not be that important in initial attraction

  • Taylor- study of online dating patterns they found no evidence that dates’ decisions were driven by a similarity between their own and potential partner’ physical attractiveness
  • Evidence of an overall preference for attractive partners
  • People dont take their own physical attractiveness into account but aim for someone more desireable
• Implications of sex differences in the importance of physical attractiveness

  • If physical attractiveness plays a stronger role in men’s long term relationship than women's, then women may experience increased pressure to maintain their physical attractiveness to successfully maintain a long term relationship
  • Physical attractiveness is not the only predictor of marital satisfaction for a man
  • Both men and women also desire partners who are supportive, trustworthy and warm and those whose partners demonstrate these qualities tend to be more satisfied with their relationships
• Research Support for the matching hypothesis

  • Used photos of 197 couples.
  • Photos of each partner alone were used so each person could be judged individually.
  • Eight judges rated the individual photos according to attractiveness
  • Found that photos of couples were consistently given a similar attractiveness rating compared to randomly matched pairs
  • Completed meta-analysis including 18 studies on the matching hypothesis containing 1644 couples and found an overall positive correlation in the attractiveness rating of couples