Attraction: Love and Physical Attractiveness
Attraction
J A S
PSY301: Social Psychology
Robin Friedman
10/21/13
When it comes to attraction, a variety of simple factors play a significant role in whom we as people come to like. Things as basic as proximity, looks, similarity, and even the difficulty of the pursuit all affect a person’s overall attractiveness. This paper will discuss how these factors are attributed to attraction and why human nature demands bonding and relationships.
People are drawn to those who are near and seen on a regular basis. This finds its explanation in that people become accustomed to the presence of a person or object (or being themselves present in a place). This results in the sensation of “liking” said things. The tendency to like something we experience often is called the mere-exposure effect (Feenstra, J., 2011). In fact, one could argue this is how people who experienced repeated trauma can develop an unhealthy fixation on said trauma or pain in general. An interesting aspect of mere-exposure is the human tendency to prefer mirror images of them, while their friends prefer a person’s true image, leading to paradox. Another important factor is physical attractiveness. While a person may initially prefer others who look like them or people close to them since their youth, their preferences could be altered due to experience with the real world. Unfortunately, even this experience can be corrupted by exposure to media that promotes a beauty stereotype. As well, for marriages wherein husbands are more attractive than their wives, the relationships tend to be poorer. Meanwhile, it is very likely that either partner would prefer a match to their own physical attractiveness. That is referred to as the matching hypothesis (Feenstra, J., 2011). Physical similarity is not the only match sought. People tend to prefer those with similar interests and values but this is more a long-term factor while physical attractiveness is merely the basis for
J A S
PSY301: Social Psychology
Robin Friedman
10/21/13
When it comes to attraction, a variety of simple factors play a significant role in whom we as people come to like. Things as basic as proximity, looks, similarity, and even the difficulty of the pursuit all affect a person’s overall attractiveness. This paper will discuss how these factors are attributed to attraction and why human nature demands bonding and relationships.
People are drawn to those who are near and seen on a regular basis. This finds its explanation in that people become accustomed to the presence of a person or object (or being themselves present in a place). This results in the sensation of “liking” said things. The tendency to like something we experience often is called the mere-exposure effect (Feenstra, J., 2011). In fact, one could argue this is how people who experienced repeated trauma can develop an unhealthy fixation on said trauma or pain in general. An interesting aspect of mere-exposure is the human tendency to prefer mirror images of them, while their friends prefer a person’s true image, leading to paradox. Another important factor is physical attractiveness. While a person may initially prefer others who look like them or people close to them since their youth, their preferences could be altered due to experience with the real world. Unfortunately, even this experience can be corrupted by exposure to media that promotes a beauty stereotype. As well, for marriages wherein husbands are more attractive than their wives, the relationships tend to be poorer. Meanwhile, it is very likely that either partner would prefer a match to their own physical attractiveness. That is referred to as the matching hypothesis (Feenstra, J., 2011). Physical similarity is not the only match sought. People tend to prefer those with similar interests and values but this is more a long-term factor while physical attractiveness is merely the basis for
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