Although experimental tests have not tended to support the matching hypothesis, correlational studies have consistently found positive intracouple attractiveness correlations among actual couples. The present investigation sought to reconcile the findings of experimental and correlational studies by probing the relation between individual choices and systemwide patterns of couple formation. Thi...

This study investigated whether and how imitation of sentences spoken in Liverpool English (LE) and Standard Southern British English (SSBE), affected attitudes related to these accents. LE has low prestige and low social attractiveness, while SSBE has high prestige and high attractiveness. A previous study showed that imitation positively affects social attractiveness, but not prestige, for an...

Attractiveness of places has been studied by several sciences, giving rise to distinct ways for assessing it. However, the attractiveness evaluation methods currently available lack versatility to analyze diverse attractiveness phenomena in different kinds of places and spatial scales. This article describes a novel method, called M-Attract, to assess interesting attractiveness of places, based...

Researchers studying human sexuality have repeatedly concluded that men place more emphasis on the physical attractiveness of potential mates than women do, particularly in long-term sexual relationships. Evolutionary theorists have suggested that this is the case because male mate value (the total value of the characteristics that an individual possesses in terms of the potential contribution ...

Using explicit (subjective evaluations) and implicit (response latency) measures, this study replicated and extended the findings by Fernandes et al (2003), who found that immediate aesthetic impressions of web pages are remarkably consistent. Forty participants evaluated 50 web pages in two phases. The degree to which web pages were regarded, on average, as attractive after a very short exposu...

This study reports on three populations’ ratings of vocal attractiveness for 30 male and 30 female voices producing isolated words. Equal numbers of male and female listeners were recruited from three dialect areas: northern California, western Canada, and Minnesota. Attractiveness ratings across dialects were highly correlated, particularly for female voices. To determine the acoustic features...

The ‘‘good genes’’ explanation of attractiveness posits that mate preferences favour healthy individuals due to direct and indirect benefits associated with the selection of a healthy mate. Consequently, attractiveness judgements are likely to reflect judgements of apparent health. One physical characteristic that may inform health judgements is fluctuating asymmetry as it may act as a visual m...

This study examined the relations between facial attractiveness, aggression, and popularity in adolescence to determine whether facial attractiveness would buffer against the negative effects of aggression on popularity. We collected ratings of facial attractiveness from standardized photographs, and teachers provided information on adolescents' social aggression, physical aggression, and popul...

Four studies investigated the importance of objective and subjective attributes to mate selection. This research tested whether perceivers' objective physical attractiveness influenced how they evaluated the physical attractiveness of others and, if considered, may provide a parsimonious account for matching in mate selection. Study 1 (N = 102) demonstrated that ratings of targets' attractivene...

Forms of body decoration exist in all human cultures. However, in Western societies, women are more likely to engage in appearance modification, especially through the use of facial cosmetics. How effective are cosmetics at altering attractiveness? Previous research has hinted that the effect is not large, especially when compared to the variation in attractiveness observed between individuals ...