Chapter 3: Attraction

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Chapter 3 Attraction

• Social Psychology by Tom Gilovich, Dacher
  Keltner, and Richard Nisbett

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What Influences Attraction?

• Physical Attractiveness
• Propinquity
• Similarity

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What Do We Find Attractive?

• Average Faces
• Composite faces are judged more attractive than
  any individual face that comprises composite.
• Symmetrical Faces
• Deviations from symmetry often occur from
  exposure to diseases in uteri.
• What is your good side?
• Female waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7
• Regardless of weight

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Physical Attractiveness

• Some important conclusions from research on
  physical attractiveness and attraction
• Though there are some features that are nearly
  universally-regarded as attractive, there is
  considerable variability in what individuals find
  attractive
• Though we tend to like those people who are
  physically attractive, the reverse is also true
  We find people we like more attractive than those
  we dont like.
• Happy couples tend to idealize each others
  physical attractiveness
• Physical attractiveness is less stable than we
  think some less attractive young people get
  better looking with age, and some great looking
  young people lose their luster with age.
  

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Impact of Physical Attractiveness

• Attractive Individuals as compared to less
  attractive individuals
• Are more popular with members of opposite sex
• May be graded easier
• May earn more money
• May get help easier
• Are less likely to be convicted
• Receive lighter sentences if convicted

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Early Effects of Physical Attractiveness

• Attractive infants receive more affection and
  attention from mothers
• Attractive children are
• thought to be more intelligent and better behaved
  by teachers
• Held less accountable for transgressions.
• Even infants show same preference for
  attractiveness

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Why Does Physical Attractiveness Have Such Impact?

a. Immediacy b. Prestige Sigall and Landy
(1973) c. Halo Effect Belief that attractive
people also possess a number of other desirable
characteristics
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Gender and the Impact of Physical Attractiveness

• Attractiveness plays more important role in
  womens lives than mens lives.
• Beauty functions as currency for women
• Allows greater access to
• Social mobility
• Popularity
• Dating prospects
• Marriage opportunities

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Evolutionary Theory

• Primary motive is reproductive success.
• People who make bad mate choices will have little
  success.
• Mate preferences should be shaped by natural
  selection.
• We are instinctively attracted to features
  associated with reproductive success

• Parental Investment Theory
• The sex that invests more is more selective.
• Females look for mate that could
• Provide resources
• Was willing to invest resources
• Protect family
• Males look for mate that
• Had good reproductive potential
• Young and healthy
• Would be faithful
• Nuturing

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Evolution and Long-Term Mate Choice

• David Buss (1986)
• Had college students rank 13 traits on how
  desirable they were in a mate.
• Both attractiveness and earning capacity were
  ranked lower than kindness and intelligence

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Busss Cross Cultural Study

• Looked at rankings across 36 countries
• Men ranked attractiveness higher than women
• Women ranked good financial prospect higher than
  men
• Women want to marry an older mate while men want
  to marry younger mate

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Social Structure Theory (Eagly Wood, 1999)

• Argue that differences found by Buss can be
  explained by social structure
• In most countries, mean control financial
  resources
• Easiest way for women to access these resources
  is marry a man with them
• Found that as women have increased access to
  resources, gender differences in importance
  ratings decreased.

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Gender Differences in Jealousy

• Buss argued that men should be more jealous of
  sexual infidelity than women since it is
  difficult to prove paternity
• Found that males were more physiologically
  aroused when they imagined partner having sex
  with another man compared to falling in love with
  another man.
• Christine Harris argued mean are more aroused by
  sex and would show same pattern imagining
  fidelity as infidelity.

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Gender Differences in Short-Term Mating

• Males are more interested in short-term mating
  than females.
• Men and women are equally interested in long-term
  mating.
• Males are more interested in having more sex
  partners than females.

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Gender Differences in Short-Term Mating

• Men do not need to know partner very long to have
  sex.

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Propinquity

• 1. Studies of
• Propinquity and
• Attraction
• Westwood West Study
• (Festinger, Schachter, Back, 1950)
• --used a Sociometric Survey - a survey that
  attempts to measure the interpersonal
  relationships in a group of people
• --measured Functional Distance - an
  architectural layouts propensity to encourage or
  inhibit certain activities, like contact between
  people

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Propinquity

• Manhattan Housing Project (Nahemow Lawton,
  1975)
• Zajonc studies
• 2. Explanations of Propinquity Effects
• a. Availability and Propinquity
• b. Anticipating Interaction
• c. The Mere Exposure Effect

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Fig. 3.2
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Fig. 3.3
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Fig. 3.4
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Similarity and Attraction

• B. Similarity
• 1. Studies of Similarity and Attraction
• Whyte (1956) study of Chicago suburb layout
• Newcomb (1956, 1961)
• Bogus Stranger paradigm

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Fig. 3.5
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Similarity and Attraction

• 2. Dont Opposites Attract? Complementarity
• Most studies claiming to support
  complementarity have been criticized on
  methodological grounds
• Similarity appears to be the rule, and
  complementarity, the exception, in attraction
• 3. Why Does Similarity Promote Attraction?
• a. Similar Others Validate Our Beliefs and
  Orientations
• b. Similarity Facilitates Smooth Interactions
• c. We Expect Similar Others to Like Us
• d. Similar Others Have Qualities We Like

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Attraction

• D. Theoretical Integration
• 1. The Reward Perspective on Interpersonal
  Attraction
• 2. The Social Exchange Perspective on
• Physical Attraction

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