underestimation of the role of physical attractiveness in dating preferences: ignorance or taboo?, The

Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, Apr 1994 by Hadjistavropoulos, Thomas, Genet, Myles

Abstract

The literature suggests that subjects tend to underreport the impact of physical attractiveness on their dating preferences. It was investigated whether this is due to subjects' inability to achieve accurate introspective reports or to a tendency to intentionally provide distort ed reports of the role of physical attractiveness in such preferences. Female subjects were shown profiles containing photographs and information about the personalities of potential male dating partners and were asked to state the dating desirability of each target person. Subseque ntly, they were asked to introspect about the factors that affected their dating preferences. T he findings suggested that subjects are capable of accurate introspection. The subjects ten ded to intentionally underreport the impact of physical attractiveness on their preferences. More sp ecifically, when subjects thought that they were connected to a lie - detector - like apparatus, they produced more accurate overall introspective reports, admitted a more extreme influence by the physical attractiveness of the targets, and endorsed more extreme dating desirability rat ings for physically unattractive men. Attractive men were consistently preferred and physical attra ctiveness was found to be the single most influential target variable on the subject's prefere nces.

Resume

D'apres la litterature, les sujets auraient tendance a ne pas signaler toute l'i nfluence de l'attrait physique sur leurs preferences concernant le choix d'un partenaire. D es recherches ont ete menees pour determiner si cela etait attribuable a l'incapacite des sujets a effectuer une introspection exacte ou a une tendance a volontairement fausser leurs rapports sur le ro@le de l'attrait physique a l'ega rd de telles preferences. On a montre a des sujets feminins des profils contenant des photos et de l'information sur la personnalite d'eventuels partenaires du sexe oppose e t on leur a demande d'indiquer le caractere desirable de chacun. On leur a ensuite demand e de s'interroger sur les facteurs qui influaient sur leurs preferences. Les conc lusions nous portent a croire que les sujets sont capables d'effectuer une introspection exac te. C'est volontairement qu'ils avaient tendance a ne pas signaler toute l'influence de l' attrait physique sur leurs preferences. Plus precisement, quand ils se croyaient relies a un appareil semblable au detecteur de mensonges, leurs introspections globales etai ent plus exactes, ils avouaient e@tre davantage influences par l'attrait physique des per sonnages qui leur etaient presentes et ils jugeaient beaucoup moins desirables les hommes physiquement non attrayants. Quant aux hommes juges attirants, ils avaient cons tamment la preference, et l'attrait physique s'est revele l'unique variable ayant une influ ence considerable sur les preferences des sujets.

Physical attractiveness is an important psychological variable that has accounte d for a statistically significant portion of the variance in almost all situations in which it has bee n studied (Berscheid, 1980). Research suggests that physically attractive individuals are favoured in a wide variety of contexts (Adams, 1985).

Despite the strong impact of physical attractiveness on many areas of human activity, it has been argued that both the scientific community and lay people are reluctant to a dmit the impact of this variable (Aronson, 1969; Patzer, 1985). In fact, the topic of physical attractiveness was not being addressed in systematic social science research before the late sixtie s (Patzer, 1985). Opposition to genetic determinism (provided by the protestant ethic and North Am erican environmentalist and democratic ideas) led to a reluctance to examine the possib ility that genetically determined physical characteristics might be closely linked to psych ological functioning (Aronson, 1969; Lindzey, 1965). The recent interest of the scientif ic community in the study of appearance characteristics (e.g., Berscheid & Walster, 1974; Fei ngold, 1992; Hatfield & Sprecher, 1986; Patzer, 1985) suggests that the obstacles that physic al attractiveness research encountered were not insurmountable.

Despite rising scientific interest, lay people still appear reluctant to ad mit that physical attractiveness may be influential in their lives. Patzer (1985) argued that peop le respond in a number of negative ways when they are confronted with the topic of physical attr activeness research. They tend to be defensive about the topic, declare that it is unethica l or improper research, refuse to consider the importance and possible influence of physical a ttractiveness, and attempt to ignore the relevant findings (Patzer, 1985). Studies of dating prefe rences, for example (e.g., Hudson & Henze, 1969; Miller & Rivenbark, 1970; Tesser & Brodie, 1971), find that the importance of attractiveness is underreported despite its often be ing the most important determinant of preference (e.g., Walster, Aronson, Abrahams, & Rottman , 1966; Curran & Lippold, 1975).