Beauty is in the eye of other beholders: Study

[DJDamage]

http://www.thestar.com/Life/article/173395

LONDON–Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder but other people's opinions matter too when it comes to the attraction between men and women, according to researchers.

They found women are more attracted to a man if other women like him, too.

"We tend to think about things like attraction as reflecting a private decision or a personal choice but our work shows that people's attractiveness judgements can be influenced in pronounced ways by what other people appear to think of those individuals," says psychologist Dr. Ben Jones.

Jones, of the University of Aberdeen, and his team tested the impact of the opinions of others by giving women a test in which they had to choose the more attractive of pairs of male faces and to rate how much more handsome they found them.

They were then shown a short video in which the same faces were displayed. But each face was being looked at by a woman smiling or one showing a bored or neutral expression.

After watching the video, the researchers repeated the initial test. "We found that the slideshow caused women to become more attracted to the men who were being smiled at by other women," says Jones.

The test had the opposite effect on men, however, possibly because of the competition factor amongst males.

When men were asked to look at the same male faces, those who got the approving female glances became less appealing.

"This shows that people are using cues to the attitudes of others towards individuals to shape their own attractiveness judgements of those individuals," Jones says.

The findings, which are reported in The Proceedings of The Royal Society B journal, are similar to mate choice copying seen in other species and are thought to be the first time it has been shown in humans.

Positive female interest in the faces increased the women's preference for the males but it had the opposite effect on male judgments.

Jones suggests the positive reaction conveys a sense of approval for women but the negative male reaction could reflect jealousy or competition.

"If I go to a bar with Brad Pitt, for example, chances are I'm not going to get much interest from the women because Pitt will hog all the attention," he says.

Anyone else thinks that most of the men they showed the picture's were AFC's? or is that just a normal reaction for men when women don't smile at them but other men?

 

[Rollo Tomassi]

It's not a male or female thing, it's simple social proof, but the article is written in such a way as to make men the "shallow" sex in the study. What's intresting is that the same competition dynamic they'd like to brand men with is the exact thing that's working in the study for women. Women giving an approving nod, and thus confirming social proof, are covertly acknowledging that the male they approve of is worhty of female competition for his attention.

And just like any other gender imbalance all one needs do is reverse the genders. You could just as easily make the case that an exceptionally attractive woman receives the lion's share of male attention (ergo, social proof) and becomes a female worthy of male competition, therefore marginalizing an average woman's ability to compete for their attention and making her the subject of jealousy. A competitive dynamic isn't unique to either sex - though we're meant to believe so according to this article - it's just that each sex expresses it differently and is prompted to reaction by different conditions.

 

[MatureDJ]

Social proof is just another way of inferencing quality that is difficult ascertain easily. The physical attractiveness of a woman can usually be ascertained easily, hence social proof doesn't matter (e.g., it doesn't matter how many men a fattie has in her social orbit, we still aren't going to be interested.) As women place a higher value on qualities other physical attractiveness in men, they have to rely on social proof more (of course, the one main thing that woman find attractive is a man's wealth, which is something that can be ascertained via gossip.)

With this said, the 2nd most important thing in a woman is her attitude or personality stability. This is something that social proof could have some merit (if a woman is always seen as some other man's g/f, then other men think that she must be stable enough to keep a man, and would be more willing to wait in line.)

 

[Dmr9]

As women place a higher value on qualities other physical attractiveness in men

If you repeat a fallacy enough time than it shall become true. (unless we're talking women above 40 or gold-digging wh*res)

 

[Hydroblunt]

Quote from a FB about 3 years ago about Jay-Z.

"Now that he is dating Beyonce, he seems much more attractive"

And she was one of most logical & blunt girls I ever met.

 

[SnakeCharmer]

This is in itself why it pays to have hot female friends!!!!!!! In my own experience, I've found that I can be out with a group of studs and get nothin'. Go out with two women, and everybody in the place, men and women, were competing for my attention. Buying me drinks, sending me phone numbers, etc.

The secret is, I've also seen that if you take out two hot women, both "just friends", that even they can't resist it. The mindset is "Hey, he is good enough to be getting noticed from _______, and she is a good girl, he must be a catch!!!"