physical attractiveness and matching hypothesis

• importance of physical attractiveness

  buss showed that men in particular place great importance on physical attractiveness when choosing a mate

  evolutionary psychologists would argue that attractiveness is a important indicator of a woman's health and fertility, because of being an indicator of good genes, being free from disease and youth
• symmetrical faces 


  symmetrical faces are rates as more attractive

  this shows good genes which would be passed to next generation if mating occurs

  symmetry is thought ti be important as its an 'honest' signal of genetic fitness and is difficult to fake
• importance of physical attraction

  recent research suggests women also look for physical attractiveness when choosing males for short term relationships but attractiveness was less important when seeking a 'serious' relationship
• support for importance of physical attractiveness

  Meltzer , 2o14

  aimed to investigate if there were sex differences in the importance of physical attractiveness in long term relationships

  both partners in a relationship had their physical attractiveness objectively rated at the beginning of study

  they were asked to report their marital satisfaction 8 times over the first 4 years of marriage
• support for importance in physical attractiveness 2

  found that objective ratings of wives attractiveness were positively correlated to levels of husbands satisfaction , the more attractive the wife the more satisfied the husband. true at the beginning and the next 4 years

  for women, their husbands attractiveness did not correlate to their satisfaction , shows that women lace less importance on physical attractiveness
• the matching hypothesis 


  although physical attractiveness is desirable we cant all form relationships with the most attractive people

  our assessment of our own attractiveness may lay a role in our choice of romantic partner , we will choose someone of similar attractiveness

  because although we want the most attractive partner this desire is balanced by the perceived likelihood of rejection and once in a relationship neither partner would be commutable if unequal matching
• evaluation of the matching hypothesis

  Taylor aimed to investigate if matching occurred in real life date choices

  studied the activity log on a real dating website

  identified airs of eole who communicated with eachother on the site

  found that website users were more likely to try and arrange a meeting with a potential partner who was more physically attractive than the,

  findings contradict the matching hypothesis
• supporting evidence that physical attractiveness seems to be more important cross culturally 


  strength = supporting evidence that physical attractiveness seems to be important factor in forming relationships cross culturally

  example = a study found that white, Asian and Hispanic males, despite from being from different cultures, rated females with prominent cheek bones, small noses and large eyes as highly attractive

  the universality of findings suggests that it might be genetic , aiding sexual selection
• contradictory evidence showing that there are individual differences in the importance of physical attractiveness 


  there are significant individual differences, in one study psychologists gave participants photos of strangers and some biographical info about them, asked to rate how much they liked the people in the photographs. was found that physical attractiveness was more important for participants who displayed sexist sexists attitudes

  suggests that depending on the individual, physical appearance may or may not be a significant factor in attractiveness
• reductionism 


  a criticism of research into physical attractiveness is that it is reduction

  theories that emphasise the importance of physical attractiveness are too simplistic as here are any other important factors when choosing a mate

  example = person may compensate for a lack of attractiveness with other desirable characteristics , charming, kindness

  theories are over simplified explanations of factors that affect attraction