Physical attractiveness

• How does physical attractiveness affect attraction?

  • How appealing we find someone's face
  • Shackleford and Larsen (1997) found that facial symmetry is a key indicator of physical attractiveness since it is considered a sign of genetic fitness
  • A 'baby face' or neotenuous figures attract people because they trigger protective or caring instincts
• What is the halo effect?

  • When physical attractiveness disproportionately clouds our judgement of people's attributes
  • We have preconceived expectations of attractive people to have positive characteristics
• What is the matching hypothesis?

  • The belief that we do not select the most attractive people as our prospective partners but rather people who match our level of physical attractiveness
  • Opting for partners of similar social desirability to ourselves can maximise our chances of a successful outcome
• What research is there into the matching hypothesis?

  • Walster and Walster (1969): invited male and female students to a dance and had them complete a questionnaire about themselves whilst objective observers rated them for physical attractiveness
  • They were told a computer would use this data to match them with a partner for the evening but were actually paired randomly
  • Hypothesis was not supported - the most liked partners were the ones who were the most physically attractive
• What other research is there into the matching hypothesis?

  • Berscheid et al (1971): replicated Walster's study but allowed people to select their own partners from varying degrees of attractiveness
  • Found that people would choose partners who matched them in physical attractiveness, supporting the hypothesis
• What is one strength of physical attractiveness as a factor affecting attraction?

  • Research support for halo effect: Palmer and Peterson (2012) found that physically attractive people were rated as more politically knowledgeable and competent than unattractive people - this view was so powerful that it persisted even when they had no particular expertise in the area
  • Suggests negative implications for the political process as there may be dangers for democracy if politicians are voted in for good looks rather than suitability for office
• What is another strength of physical attractiveness as a factor affecting attraction?


  • Support from evolution: Cunningham et al. (1995) found that white, Hispanic, and Asian men all rated women with large eyes, prominent cheekbones, small noses, and high eyebrows as very attractive
  • Shows that beauty standards of symmetry are consistent even across different cultures as signs of genetic fitness
  • Strengthens importance of physical attractiveness as it makes sense from an evolutionary perspective
• What is one limitation of physical attractiveness as a factor affecting attraction?


  • Contrasting evidence: Taylor et al. (2011) reviewed activity logs of a popular dating site and found that online daters sought meetings with partners who were more physically attractive than them
  • Research has high validity as it reviews actual date choices rather than just preferences and undermines the hypothesis by contradicting its central prediction of matching attractiveness
• What is another limitation of physical attractiveness as a factor affecting attraction?


  • Individual differences: there is evidence that some people don't attach much importance to attractiveness
  • Touhey (1979) measured sexist attitudes of men and women and found that low scorers were relatively unaffected by physical attractiveness when judging the likability of potential partners
  • Suggests it isn't a universally applicable theory