Physical Attractiveness

4 Pages 1050 Words

Do People Date Others That Are Similarly Attractive? .
Despite well-meaning sayings such as “beauty is only skin deep” and most people’s expressed beliefs that physical attractiveness should not influence us in our interpersonal relationships, it does. In fact, physical attractiveness appears to influence first impressions more than any other variable. And although there are some elements of physical attractiveness, such as symmetry, that appear to be universally appealing, in general, evaluations of beauty are subjective. Different cultures have different standards of beauty, as well as people within the same culture. If we all had the same “type,” biological diversity would become nonexistent, and the world would be a very boring place.
Judgments of beauty tend to change over time and depend on how we feel about a person. While physical attractiveness most influences first impressions, when we are choosing more permanent partners, it declines in importance (Atkinson, 1996). People also tend to choose partners that roughly match them in physical attractiveness.
What is physical attractiveness? Social scientists believe that beauty is defined by social consensus (Berscheid & Walster, 1974). Physical attractiveness is usually viewed as a status characteristic. When measuring physical attractiveness of a person, researchers use judges. There are general standards of attractiveness within American society to which both males and females from the same cultural background will use (Morse, Reis, Gruzen, & Wolff, 1974). Most studies find that men and women agree in their average judgments of male and female attractiveness.

Do People Date Others 4
According to a study by Feingold (1992), physically attractive people were perceived as more sociable, dominant, sexually warm, mentally healthy, ...