Physical attractiveness and dating choice: A test of the matching hypothesis

Berscheid, Ellen; Dion, Karen K.; Walster, Elaine; Walster, G. William

doi:10.1016/0022-1031(71)90065-5

Cited by 457 publications

(247 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…On the other hand, the Matching Hypothesis proposes that individuals will tend to choose partners that are of approximately equal attractiveness (Berscheid, Dion, Walster & Walster, 1971;Curran, 1973;Walster, Aronson, Abrahams and Rottman, 1966).…”

Section: Physical Attractivenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

How gender role stereotypes affect attraction in an online dating scenario

Chappetta

Barth

2016

Computers in Human Behavior

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Today, it is not uncommon to meet someone and begin a romantic relationship on the internet. Meeting on a dating website differs from meeting in person because a dating profile is created first that allows others to review potential romantic partners. Few studies have examined romantic attraction within an online dating context, and even fewer have examined how gender roles may influence attraction. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 (N = 447, 49.4% female) examined the effects of gender role congruence and physical attractiveness on romantic interest.Study 2 (N = 234, 100% female) examined if the effects of gender roles and physical attractiveness extended to changes in women's self-presentation. In both studies participants viewed online dating profiles that varied in their physical attractiveness and adherence to gender role norms. Study 1 results indicated that both men and women prefer attractive and gender role incongruent dating partners over average looking and gender role congruent. For Study 2, profile gender role congruence or incongruence did not appear to have an effect on women's selfpresentation; however, there was a significant increase in self-reports of masculine traits over the sessions disregarding profile gender role congruence. This may suggest that being in a dating situation could increase women's self-presentation of masculine traits. The results of these studies go against current major theories and demonstrate a need for these theories to be altered to accommodate for the way gender roles truly play a role in our society today.iii

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Section: Physical Attractivenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

How gender role stereotypes affect attraction in an online dating scenario

Chappetta

Barth

2016

Computers in Human Behavior

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“…Thus research on children's perceptions of adults is necessary in order to test for agerelated differences in perceptions of attractiveness. Research is also needed to examine school aged children because although research has been conducted with young and preschool aged children (see Dion, 1973;Dion & Berscheid, 1974;Langlois & Downs, 1979;Styczynski & Langlois, 1977) and adults (e.g., Berscheid, Dion, Walster, & Walster, 1971), few studies have been directed toward the elementary school years (for exceptions see Langlois & Stephan, 1977;Langlois & Styczynski, 1979).…”

Section: Variability In Stereotype Directionalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Stereotype Directionality and Attractiveness Stereotyping: Is Beauty Good or is Ugly Bad?

Griffin¹,

Langlois²

2006

Social Cognition

213

163

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Dion, Berscheid, and Walster (1972), in their seminal article, labeled the attribution of positive characteristics to attractive people the "beauty-is-good" stereotype. The stereotyping literature since then provides extensive evidence for the differential judgment and treatment of attractive versus unattractive people, but does not indicate whether it is an advantage to be attractive or a disadvantage to be unattractive. Two studies investigated the direction of attractiveness stereotyping by comparing judgments of positive and negative attributes for medium vs. low and medium vs. high attractive faces. Taken together, results for adults (Experiment 1) and children (Experiment 2) suggest that most often, unattractiveness is a disadvantage, consistent with negativity bias (e.g., Rozin & Royzman, 2001) but contrary to the "beauty-is-good" aphorism.

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“…Berscheid, Dion, Walster, and Walster (1971) showed that for women, there was a much stronger relationship between how men viewed them in terms of attractiveness and the frequency with which they were selected as dates. On the other hand, they found that women do not seem to be as much influenced by physical attractiveness with respect to their selection of dates.…”

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confidence: 99%