Discuss physical attractiveness as a factor affecting attraction in romantic
relationships (16 marks):
Physical attractiveness is an important factor in the formation of romantic relationships. The
term usually applies specifically to how appealing we find a person's face. There is general
agreement within and across cultures about what is considered physically attractive. There
exists an assumption that we seek to form relationships with the most attractive person
favailable.
The matching hypothesis is the belief that we do not select the most attractive person as a
prospective partner but, instead, are attracted to people who are approximately 'match' us
in physical (i.e. facial) attractiveness.This implies we take into account our own
attractiveness 'value: when seeking romantic partners. We do this to avoid the fear of
rejection by someone we perceive as more attractive than ourselves.
The halo effect describes how one distinguishing feature (here, physical attractiveness)
tends to have a disproportionate influence on ourjudgements of a person's other
attributes, e.g. their personality. It is also the belief that good-looking people probably have
these characteristics makes them even more attractive to us, so we act positively towards
San QB
them. sacce-*u.l
Palmer and Peterson (2012) found that physically attractive people weregyed asrtT2%rg
than unattractive peopl@JThishalo effect was so
powerful that it persisted even When participants knewthat these people had no particuLåü
This study provides evidenceeforthe halo effect, and the existence of
the halo effect has been found to apply to many areas of life, confirming that physical
attractiveness. is an important factor in the initial formation of rel tionshi s.
less vmpuesiNIOQrre.
Research shows that what is physically attractive is remarkably onslstent across cu ture A
study found that@ma e featuresfflarge eyes, prominent c eekbones, small nose and high
eyebrows wererated as highly attractive by white, Hispanic and Asian maleS.9Thisshows
that the physical attractivenessstereotypejs culturally pervasjvejand it seems it
tstrongcmcolléctivist,culturgsas well as in individualist ones, which supports the theory of
physical attractiveness being an important influencing factor into sexual preferences.
However, there is research@fi#åßiCii@the„rnat@hüi€hYÖOthéSWwhich is a limitation. A
study looked at the activity logs of a popularfdatingsit9?andfound that
{meetings with whöWere physically-more attractiVe thanth€m'lt seems
they id not consider theiqown attractivenes$when making decisions about who to date.
U
This was-real•lifetest of the matching hypothesis because it MéåSUréd åCtLIalGÆéChGiCéS7
.nd not:merely preference'l This also means the study we can
geralize the findings to the wider population. This is in keeping with the original
hypothesis which concerned realistic as opposed to fantasy choices.
Cotud be Vheory iB becomtn9 more (d
onlme depends On vusual for
Qk.ceS pat*oer Se-A«ki01Ä,
relationships (16 marks):
Physical attractiveness is an important factor in the formation of romantic relationships. The
term usually applies specifically to how appealing we find a person's face. There is general
agreement within and across cultures about what is considered physically attractive. There
exists an assumption that we seek to form relationships with the most attractive person
favailable.
The matching hypothesis is the belief that we do not select the most attractive person as a
prospective partner but, instead, are attracted to people who are approximately 'match' us
in physical (i.e. facial) attractiveness.This implies we take into account our own
attractiveness 'value: when seeking romantic partners. We do this to avoid the fear of
rejection by someone we perceive as more attractive than ourselves.
The halo effect describes how one distinguishing feature (here, physical attractiveness)
tends to have a disproportionate influence on ourjudgements of a person's other
attributes, e.g. their personality. It is also the belief that good-looking people probably have
these characteristics makes them even more attractive to us, so we act positively towards
San QB
them. sacce-*u.l
Palmer and Peterson (2012) found that physically attractive people weregyed asrtT2%rg
than unattractive peopl@JThishalo effect was so
powerful that it persisted even When participants knewthat these people had no particuLåü
This study provides evidenceeforthe halo effect, and the existence of
the halo effect has been found to apply to many areas of life, confirming that physical
attractiveness. is an important factor in the initial formation of rel tionshi s.
less vmpuesiNIOQrre.
Research shows that what is physically attractive is remarkably onslstent across cu ture A
study found that@ma e featuresfflarge eyes, prominent c eekbones, small nose and high
eyebrows wererated as highly attractive by white, Hispanic and Asian maleS.9Thisshows
that the physical attractivenessstereotypejs culturally pervasjvejand it seems it
tstrongcmcolléctivist,culturgsas well as in individualist ones, which supports the theory of
physical attractiveness being an important influencing factor into sexual preferences.
However, there is research@fi#åßiCii@the„rnat@hüi€hYÖOthéSWwhich is a limitation. A
study looked at the activity logs of a popularfdatingsit9?andfound that
{meetings with whöWere physically-more attractiVe thanth€m'lt seems
they id not consider theiqown attractivenes$when making decisions about who to date.
U
This was-real•lifetest of the matching hypothesis because it MéåSUréd åCtLIalGÆéChGiCéS7
.nd not:merely preference'l This also means the study we can
geralize the findings to the wider population. This is in keeping with the original
hypothesis which concerned realistic as opposed to fantasy choices.
Cotud be Vheory iB becomtn9 more (d
onlme depends On vusual for
Qk.ceS pat*oer Se-A«ki01Ä,
