By: Ashley coleman
Whether attraction is determined by choice, situation, or biological influences has long been debated. Especially for humans, attraction seems to be best understood as a combination of these factors. For example, biological predisposition may influence the choice an individual makes when presented with a particular situation. In this blog, I review evidence related to physiological arousal, physical appearance, and familiarity to answer the question of what attraction is and what influences it.
Defining Attraction
Attraction is an attitude of positive evaluation of another, which often overlaps with cognitions and behaviors (Fiske, 2014). In other words, attraction to another person involves a response pattern that demonstrates liking and may lead to intimacy and mate selection (Fiske, 2014). The attractiveness of another can involve physical traits (such as facial symmetry or muscle definition), personality characteristics (such as intelligence, gentleness, or strength), and interpersonal attributes (such as social skills or positive interactions).
Indicators of Attraction
One indicator of attraction is nervous system arousal. For example, Meston and Frohlick (2003) found that people were more likely to rate a photo of another person as attractive if they had just finished riding a roller coaster than if they had not ridden a roller coaster. This finding indicates that excitement, or physiological arousal, can transfer to attraction, another type of physiological arousal.
Another indicator of attraction is mate selection. A current theory explaining human mate selection, mutual mate choice (MMC; Stewart-Williams & Thomas, 2013) contends that both sexes choose long-term mates based on mutual agreement. This theory opposes previous theories which argue that males compete for mates, whereas women choose mates. The MMC theory suggests that, in humans, attraction is important for both men and women.
However, Little, DeBruine, and Jones (2014) found that visual familiarity may be more important to women’s level of attraction than men’s level of attraction, given that men on average prefer visual novelty when viewing potential partners. Thus, Little et al. (2014) suggested that men may seek more partners than women due to a preference for (or attraction to) novelty. This finding supports the idea that there may be sex differences in attraction between men and women.
Factors Related to Attraction
Although there are individual differences to what people find attractive (or at least which mates people select), research has demonstrated that on average, people are more attractive to another if they share commonalities, are positive, and have a sense of humor (Fiske, 2014). In addition, men on average more highly value physical attraction in women; whereas women on average more highly value kindness and status in men (Fiske, 2014).
In a study conducted by the online dating site OkCupid (2014), the website’s users as a whole were more likely to rate looks and personality based on another user’s profile picture rather than the text information on their profile. Therefore, there seem to be overarching values related to attraction, specifically those related to physical appearance.
Familiarity with another person, defined by time spent interacting with another person, also predicts attraction, and responsiveness, comfort, satisfaction during the interaction, and perceived knowledge are important factors in the relationship between familiarity and attraction (Reis et al., 2011). These findings indicate that familiarity combined with other positive attributes of the individual or interaction predict attraction to another person.
Basis for Attraction
Although research suggests that physical appearance is a key component in attraction, the reasoning behind why is less clear. For example, physical appearance may be driven by biological influences, such as physiological arousal or mate selection. However, attraction related to physical appearance may also be driven by social influences, such that people choose more attractive partners because they too are attractive and therefore are exposed to and approached by more attractive people (perceived similarity). In addition, people may choose partners based on attractiveness factors other than physical appearance, such as familiarity and positive interactions. Therefore, attraction may not correlate perfectly with physical appearance. Instead, attraction may be determined by several factors, including biological influences, situation, and personal choice.
References
- Fiske, S. T. (2014). Social Beings: Core Motives in Social Psychology (3rd edition). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
- Little, A. C., DeBruine, L. M., & Jones, B. C. (2014). Sex differences in attraction to familiar and unfamiliar opposite-sex faces: Men prefer novelty and women prefer familiarity. Archives Of Sexual Behavior, 43(5), 973-981. doi:10.1007/s10508-013-0120-2
- Meston, C. M., & Frohlich, P. F. (2003). Love at first fright: Partner salience moderates roller-coaster-induced excitation transfer. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 32(6), 537-544.
- OkCupid. (2014). We Experiment On Human Beings! Retrieved from https://theblog.okcupid.com/we-experiment-on-human-beings-5dd9fe280cd5.
- Reis, H. T., Maniaci, M. R., Caprariello, P. A., Eastwick, P. W., & Finkel, E. J. (2011). Familiarity does indeed promote attraction in live interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(3), 557.
- Stewart-Williams, S., & Thomas, A. G. (2013). The ape that thought it was a peacock: Does evolutionary psychology exaggerate human sex differences? Psychological Inquiry, 24(3), 137-168.