In this video I discuss attractiveness. I begin by discussing the halo effect; the idea that physically attractive people are often perceived as having other positive qualities such as being smarter or more outgoing. Next I consider which physical traits are universally considered attractive. Symmetry represents an important marker of health and the ability to produce healthy offspring. Attractive facial features vary by gender and female faces which are “cute” are considered attractive, while male faces which are “dominant” are considered more attractive. A waist-to-hip ratio of .7 is considered attractive in females, while in males a hip-to-shoulder ratio of .9 is attractive. Lastly I briefly consider non-physical aspects of attractiveness (personality traits and intelligence) and how self-disclosure can strengthen relationships and increase attraction.
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Video Transcript
Hi, I’m Michael Corayer and this is Psych Exam Review. In the previous video I talked about attraction and relationship formation but I didn’t talk about attractiveness. And yet we all recognize that some people are more physically attractive than others. So does physical attractiveness matter in our interpersonal relationships? It probably doesn’t surprise you to learn that the answer is yes.
Physical attractiveness does matter in which relationships we form but it also matters in ways that it probably shouldn’t and this brings us to what’s called the Halo Effect. So the halo effect refers to the idea that people who are judged as being more physically attractive are also assumed to have other positive qualities; they’re often seen as being smarter, being more capable, being more outgoing and social, and they’re assumed to have higher self-esteem. So our physical appearance can influence the assumptions people make about our personality traits and about our skills.
This is part of the reason why attractive people feature so prominently in advertising. It’s not just the case that advertisers want us to associate beauty with their products, or that we want to associate ourselves with these attractive people by buying those products, but it may also be the case that we see these attractive people as being more knowledgeable and therefore their recommendations of a particular product might have more influence over us.
So physical attractiveness does matter and it’s one of the best predictors of attraction between people. If we find somebody who’s physically attractive, who’s rated as being physically attractive, it’s likely that they’ll have a partner who’s also rated as being physically attractive. But what does it mean to be attractive? What is attractive? Are their universal laws of attractiveness, or is beauty in the eye of the beholder?
Well, it seems to be the case that there are some universal laws of attractiveness. So if we look cross culturally around the world and we ask people to rate signs of physical attractiveness, there are certain features that are rated as attractive all over the world. One of these is symmetry. So being physically symmetrical is an indicator of good health and this is probably the reason why it’s seen as being so attractive. Because if you have a genetic defect, or a disease, or an infection, or a parasite, then these are things that might cause you to develop asymmetrically. So somebody who’s asymmetrical might have some genetic defect. And when we’re looking for attractiveness, what we’re really looking for is a chance to pass on our genes to our offspring. We want to pass on healthy genes and that means we want a partner who’s also healthy. And so if there’s a chance somebody has a genetic defect, or an infection, or a parasite, then we probably don’t want to pass that on and that means we’ll see that person as being less attractive as a potential mate.
Now symmetry also matters in our facial features, but there are also gender differences in which facial features are considered to be attractive. So in females the facial features that are often considered to be more attractive are those that we might consider to be “cute” things like large eyes, a small nose, and a pointed chin, are often considered to be attractive in women. Whereas in men, facial features that are more attractive are often those we might consider to be more dominant things like a thick brow, a sharp jaw, and a broad chin.
Now body shape is also part of what we judge is physically attractive and one sort of universal law that seems to arise in investigating which body shapes are seen as attractive in females, it seems to be the case that a waist-to-hip ratio of about 0.7 is considered to be very attractive. So it’s not about the specific size of the waist or the hips but rather that the waist is about 70% the size of the hips. This is related to the sort of classic hourglass figure that’s seen as attractive in females.
In males however the ratio that seems to be more important is what’s called the hip-to-shoulder ratio and in males the hip to shoulder ratio of about, of about 0.9 is considered to be attractive. And so this is case where the hips are about 90% of the width of the shoulders. This is often referred to as the inverted-triangle shape; broad shoulders down to a narrower waist.
Now physical attractiveness is compelling; we we feel this strong sense of almost wonder when we see very physically attractive people. And why would this be well? If we think about attractiveness as the signs that we could pass on healthy offspring, we can think of somebody who’s very physically attractive as representing a chance for our own immortality. Because we want to have offspring who aren’t just healthy, we want offspring who are also attractive, because that’s going to improve their chances of finding a mate as well. And so when we see somebody who’s very physically attractive, it’s so compelling because it’s a way of saying if we could just pass on our genes with this person, then our offspring would have a better chance of being healthy and have a better chance of passing on their genes, and that means our genes could continue for many more generations.
Of course, it’s not just physical attractiveness that matters. Other non-physical attributes matter as well and so other things like certain personality traits are important, particularly in the case of long-term partners. Things like intelligence also influence how attractive we consider someone to be. And another non-physical attribute is a way we can increase attraction and strengthen a relationship and this is self disclosure. But unfortunately if you’re looking for an attraction strategy, it works on yourself rather than on other people. What I mean by that is when you disclose more about yourself, when you reveal personal details to someone, it can actually make you feel closer to that person and you can feel more attracted to the person that you tell. Now a corollary to this would be that if you can get somebody to divulge their personal secrets to you there’s a chance that they’ll feel closer to you and it will strengthen the relationship between you.
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