What makes someone attractive? How does physical attractiveness affect our mating choices? In many animal species, looks are crucial for successful reproduction. In peacocks, it's the male with the largest colourful tail that gets the best chances to mate. The beautiful, large tail signals that the bird is strong and healthy, which attracts the female birds.
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Jetzt kostenlos anmeldenWhat makes someone attractive? How does physical attractiveness affect our mating choices? In many animal species, looks are crucial for successful reproduction. In peacocks, it's the male with the largest colourful tail that gets the best chances to mate. The beautiful, large tail signals that the bird is strong and healthy, which attracts the female birds.
But is it all about fitness in the human world? What is the role of physical beauty, and how can it influence our judgements? Let's explore the role of physical attraction in romantic relationships.
Finally, we'll evaluate the theories explaining the role of physical attractiveness in relationships.
Fig. 1: We're often drawn to people we consider attractive.
Attraction is an instinctive feeling that involves a desire to be around someone. When we are attracted to someone, we feel fond of this person, we find their presence pleasing, and we can develop an interest in them. Attraction can be due to many factors, and one of them is physical attractiveness.
Physical attraction occurs when we develop a liking for, an interest in or a desire to be around someone, due to their physical appearance.
Physical attractiveness is based on one's physical appearance and the degree to which it aligns with the aesthetic preferences of others. Looks are especially powerful at evoking attraction, they can make us interested in a person from the moment we see their face or even a photo on a dating app. It's how “love at first sight” works.
Just like the lyrics in Madonna's Physical attraction song suggest, “physical attraction, it's a chemical reaction”. When we develop an attraction to someone, our brain responds with greater dopamine and norepinephrine transmission, which corresponds to feelings of excitement and better mood. We also see greater activity in the orbitofrontal brain region, where the reward system is located.
The definition of beauty is generally arbitrary – the physical traits we perceive as attractive have changed across cultures and times. However, evolutionary psychologists argue that certain universals exist when it comes to physical attraction. Attraction towards traits that signal to others that we are healthy and ready to reproduce has been proposed to be evolutionarily adaptive.
We'll consider example traits that have been associated with attraction across cultures, including the waist-to-hip ratio, facial features and facial symmetry.
One physical feature that has been linked to attractiveness is the waist-to-hip ratio in females. Singh hypothesised that a small waist-to-hip ratio is an honest indicator of health, youthfulness and female fertility and therefore results in attraction in males regardless of culture.
Singh and Young (1995) investigated the influence of body fat, waist-to-hip ratio as well as breast size on female attractiveness to male college students. Participants were shown images of women varying on these dimensions and were asked to rate them in terms of age, attractiveness, health, and desirability for short and long-term relationships.
Slender bodies and low waist-to-hip ratio were associated with a higher rating of attractiveness, health, and desirability for relationships. Singh and Luis (1995) replicated this experiment with Indonesian and Afro-American participants, with similar results.
The preference for the small waist-to-hip ratio is thought to be evolutionarily adaptive, as it's one of the signals of health and youthfulness.
Cunningham et al. (1995) studied Asian, white, and Hispanic men’s attitudes towards women. They found that high cheekbones, small noses, and large eyes were consistently rated as attractive across all cultures. This suggests a certain universality when it comes to the desired facial features.
Similarly to the waist-to-hip ratio, these facial features are also associated with youthfulness. Therefore, a universal preference for these features in females could develop due to evolutionary pressures.
Another feature that makes people seem more attractive is facial symmetry. The influence of facial symmetry on attraction was investigated by Langlois and Roggman (1990). They hypothesised that faces that look average in the population would be perceived as the most attractive.
To investigate this hypothesis, they took photos of 3 male and 3 female faces and created a composite image for each gender.
Rhodes et al. (2001) repeated this experiment on non-Western faces to investigate the universality of the attractiveness of symmetry and averageness. They found that Japanese composite faces were judged as more attractive for Japanese participants, and average Chinese faces were more attractive for Chinese participants.
In their second experiment, they also investigated whether perfect symmetry would be preferred compared to composite images.
The preference for facial symmetry can also be explained by evolutionary pressures, as it's one of the indicators of good health.
Physical attractiveness makes us more desirable to potential partners, but it can also make us seem more likeable or even more competent. According to the halo effect, we are more likely to view attractive people in a positive light in domains unrelated to appearance.
The halo effect describes the phenomenon where we perceive physically attractive people as having other positive personality traits. For example, when we judge someone as having kind eyes, we assume that someone with attractive eyes must also have a kind personality.
The Halo effect was investigated by Dion et al. (1972). They recruited 30 male and 30 female American students to take part in the study. Participants were told the study is a ‘people perception’ experiment alongside graduates trained in the field.
What people do and don’t find attractive is subjective, so although Dion et al. (1972) had categorised the photos as ‘attractive’, ‘average’ or ‘unattractive’ it remains that for some people the ‘attractive’ people might have been ‘average’ or even ‘unattractive’.
The results clearly demonstrated that participants perceived attractive people as having more positive personality traits, higher-status jobs, and greater happiness. These results support the halo effect theory, as they suggest that people do link physical attractiveness to other positive attributes.
Dion et al. (1972) study can be criticised for low ecological validity and reductionism. Other factors such as voice, mannerisms, and clothing might influence someone’s attractiveness. However, the study reduced attraction to only physical characteristics. It failed to consider what may also influence attraction in real-life situations.
Fig. 2: We judge attractive people as more happy and more successful.
When looking for a potential partner, we may not instantly go for the most attractive person around. Instead, we look for someone who we think fits our level of attractiveness, known as the matching hypothesis.
You might have heard people use the phrase “she’s way out of my league”, which demonstrates that we are often looking for someone who's at a similar level of attractiveness to us.
The matching hypothesis, proposed by Elaine Hatfield et al. (1966), states that people choose partners who are at a similar level of physical attractiveness, to avoid rejection.
According to this theory, a person’s choice of partner is a balance between someone who is of a similar level of attractiveness to them and who is the most attractive person possible within their ‘league’. This is because people aim to get the best outcome (the most attractive partner) without the negative experience of being rejected.
Walster et al. (1966) explored the theory and found their experiment did not support the theory, however. 376 men and 376 women took part in a computer dance study where they were matched up with partners.
The results indicated that, overall, people preferred partners who were deemed attractive, regardless of their own levels of attractiveness. It had low ecological validity, however, as it did not accurately represent dating.
Murstein (1972) studied 197 college couples. First, each participant was given a rating of attractiveness from a panel of judges individually. Then, the similarity in the ratings between the people who were together was compared to the similarity of random men and women in the sample that were not together.
These findings are also supported by Feingold (1988), who conducted a meta-analysis of 17 studies that investigated how similar are couples or same-sex friends in terms of physical attractiveness.
However, some research contradicts the matching hypothesis, suggesting that people are more interested in partners that are more attractive than them rather than match their level of attractiveness (Walster et al. 1966; Taylor et al. 2011).
One strength of the theories of physical attraction is that they have been supported by numerous studies. What is more, they've been investigated across different cultures, which supports the evolutionary basis for why certain physical attributes make us look universally more attractive.
However, some critics point out that physical attractiveness mainly applies to short-term relationships, whereas in long-term relationships, the most important things are compatibility of attitudes and values. The matching theory also doesn’t consider that people may compensate for a lack of physical attraction by focusing on people’s positive personality traits.
Moreover, research on physical attractiveness is often affected by beta bias, as it usually focuses on male views.
Meltzer et al. (2014) found that men rate their long-term relationships as more satisfying if they find their partner physically attractive. Meanwhile, for women, their partner’s attractiveness didn’t influence their satisfaction.
Finally, attractiveness may be more or less influential depending on our values. Towhey (1979) gave participants photos of strangers along with some biographical information and found that those who held sexist views were more likely to view physical attractiveness as important.
Fig. 3: Physical attractiveness is not the only factor that counts, especially in long-term relationships.
Physical attraction occurs when we develop a liking for and an interest in or a desire to be around someone due to their physical appearance.
The physical attributes that have been linked to attractiveness include the waist-to-hip ratio, facial features and facial symmetry.
The halo effect describes the phenomenon where we perceive physically attractive people as having other positive personality traits.
The matching hypothesis, proposed by Elaine Hatfield et al. (1966), states that people choose partners who are at a similar level of physical attractiveness, to avoid rejection. Research both supports and opposes the matching hypothesis.
Cross-cultural research has supported physical attractiveness. However, the importance of physical attractiveness can depend on the character of the relationship, our personal values or gender.
Physical attraction occurs when we develop a liking for and an interest in or a desire to be around someone due to their physical appearance.
The halo effect is when people link other positive personality traits, otherwise unrelated to physical appearance, to physical attractiveness. For instance, people will perceive attractive people as also having higher-status jobs, and greater levels of happiness.
A person may suggest someone is kind and competent because they are physically attractive. These traits are unrelated to physical appearance.
Physical attractiveness is one of the factors that influences attraction. This has been explained by the adaptive value of having a preference for traits that signal health, fertility, and youthfulness in potential partners.
The matching hypothesis states that people choose partners who are at a similar level of physical attractiveness, as this means they won’t experience rejection.
Why do physical attributes contribute to attraction according to evolutionary psychology?
Attraction towards physical attributes that signal to others that we are healthy and ready to reproduce has been proposed to be evolutionary adaptive.
The ______ effect is when people link physical attractiveness with positive personality traits.
Angel.
What were the findings of Murstein (1972), who studied the similarity in physical attractiveness across college couples?
Murstein (1972) found that the ratings of attractiveness in the real couples were more similar compared to the random pairings.
According to the matching hypothesis why do people look for partners with a similar level of attractiveness to them?
To avoid rejection.
Why is research on physical attractiveness criticised for beta-bias?
Because it focuses mainly on male views on attractiveness.
The_______ hypothesis explains attraction as an attempt to find a partner who is a similar level of attractiveness to you.
Minimising.
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