Gender differences in effects of physical attractiveness on romantic attraction: A comparison across five research paradigms.

Abstract

Evolutionary and sociocultural theories of mate selection preferences contend that men place greater value on physical attractiveness than do women. Thus, meta-analyses were conducted of findings from 5 research paradigms that have examined the hypothesis: (a) questionnaire studies, (b) analyses of lonely hearts advertisments, (c) studies that correlate attractiveness with opposite-sex popularity, (d) studies that correlate attractiveness with liking by a dyadic interaction partner, and (e) experiments that manipulate the attractiveness and similarity of an opposite-sex stranger. The anticipated sex difference emerged in all five meta-analyses, although it was larger in research that examined self-reports than in research that examined social behavior.It is a popular belief that being physically attractive is of greater importance for women than for men, particularly in attracting the opposite sex. Research on the value placed on physical appearance began in the 1930s and 1940s by sociologists who constructed mate selection questionnaires (Baber, 1936;Christensen, 1947;Hill, 1945;Strauss, 1946). Respondents were asked to judge the importance of different characteristics for their ideal mate, and more men than women reported that "good looks" were necessary (see review by Powers, 1971).Two correlational paradigms were subsequently developed to address the same question. The attractiveness-popularity paradigm examines the correlation between people's physical attractiveness and their popularity with the opposite sex (e.g, Berscheid, Dion, Walster, & Walster, 1971). The dyadic interaction paradigm consists of the arrangement of encounters (e.g, blind dates) between single men and women. Individuals' physical attractiveness is correlated with postinteraction reports of how much they are liked by their partners (e.g, Walster,

From Evolved Motives to Everyday Mentation: Evolution, Goals, and Cognition

“…r Alternatively, the one-sided gender bias hypothesis states that men, more than women, selectively attend to attractive members of the other sex. This hypothesis is consistent with research suggesting that men value physical attractiveness in potential mates relatively more than females do (Buss, 1989;Feingold, 1990Feingold, , 1992Kenrick et al, 1990). For example, women shown photos of physically attractive men did not alter their commitment to their partners, as men did when exposed to physically attractive women .…”

“…Much evidence indicates that physical attractiveness often plays a major role in romantic relationships (e.g., Feingold, 1990Feingold, , 1992Shackelford, 2001;Simpson et al, 1990), and so we might expect people to direct their attention selectively to individuals who are physically attractive; this tendency should be exaggerated among those perceivers currently interested in romance. We explored this general idea in a series of five experiments, focusing specifically on several alternative hypotheses derived from evolutionary considerations (Maner et al, 2003).…”

“…Data from a fifth experiment suggests that women's memory for attractive men is relatively poor. One plausible explanation for the lack of frequency estimation bias, then, is that even though women's attention is initially drawn to attractive men, their cognitive processing of those attractive men subsequently begins to diminish: Because women are not as interested in male strangers as potential mates, and because physical attractiveness is not as important a determinant of female mating choices (Buss, 1989;Feingold, 1990Feingold, , 1992Kenrick et al, 1990), attractive men may not be cognitively benefited by their attractiveness (i.e., may not be increasingly likely to be encoded and remembered), and thus may not be especially likely to come to mind when one attempts to estimate their frequency in the social environment.…”

Gazing Behavior During Mixed-Sex Interactions: Sex and Attractiveness Effects

“…Accordingly, humans in general tend to look for physically attractive mates. Research on preferences for partner characteristics shows that both men and women prefer attractive over unattractive partners (Feingold, 1990). Thus, physical attractiveness serves as an indicator to identify genetically viable mates (Thornhill & Gangestad, 1999).…”

Exercising the Self: On the Role of Exercise, Gender and Culture in Physical-self Perceptions

“…It has also been demonstrated that physical attractiveness is more closely related to self-esteem and a more important determinant of popularity with the opposite sex for females than for males (Feingold, 1990(Feingold, , 1992. However, as a caveat to this suggestion, other meta-analytic reviews (Eagly et al, 1991;Langlois et al, 2000) have not found support for the hypothesis that the physical attractiveness stereotype is stronger for females than for males.…”