Buss, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Texas. On a scale of 1 to 3, the importance men gave to good looks rose from 1. But for women, the importance of good looks in men rose from 0. In all likelihood this trend will continue, driven by social and technological changes that are unlikely to be reversed anytime soon—changes such as the new ubiquity of media images, the growing financial independence of women, and the worldwide weakening of the institution of marriage.
For better or worse, we live now in an age of appearances. It looks like looks are here to stay. T he paradox, in such an age, is that the more important appearances become, the worse most of us seem to look—and not just by comparison with the godlike images alternately taunting and bewitching us from every billboard and TV screen. While popular culture is obsessed with fashion and style, and our prevailing psychological infirmity is said to be narcissism, fully two-thirds of American adults have abandoned conventional ideas of attractiveness by becoming overweight.
Nearly half of this group is downright obese. Social scientists have established what most of us already know in this regard, which is that heavy people are perceived less favorably in a variety of ways.
Across cultures—even in places such as Fiji, where fat is the norm—people express a preference for others who are neither too slim nor too heavy. In studies by University of Texas psychologist Devendra Singh, people guessed that the heaviest figures in photos were eight to 10 years older than the slimmer ones, even though the faces were identical.
Walk around midtown Manhattan, and these garments are striking by their absence. Consumer spending reflects this. The irony is that the more athletic gear we wear, from plum-colored velour track suits to high-tech sneakers, the less athletic we become.
The overall change in our attire did not happen overnight. Tops—and nowadays often bottoms—emblazoned with the names of companies, schools, and places make many of these shoppers into walking billboards. Bulbous athletic shoes, typically immaculate on adults who go everywhere by car, are the functional equivalent of SUVs for the feet.
Consider these numbers from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons: 9. Cosmetic dentistry is also booming, as is weight-loss surgery.
But appearances in this case are deceiving. The evidence suggests that a great many of us do not care nearly enough about how we look, and that even those who care very much indeed still end up looking terrible. Extremes in casual clothing have several important functions.
A big one nowadays is camouflage. Tent-like T-shirts and sweatsuits cover a lot of sins, and the change in our bodies over time is borne out by the sizes stores find themselves selling. Camouflage may also account for the popularity of black, which is widely perceived as slimming as well as cool.
That brings us to another motive for dressing down—way down—which is status. Dressing to manifest disregard for society—think of the loose, baggy hipsters in American high schools—broadcasts self-determination by flaunting the needlessness of having to impress anybody else. Among the truly young, dressing down is a way to avoid any embarrassing lapses in self-defining rebelliousness.
And for the young and fit, sexy casual clothing can honestly signal a desire for short-term rather than long-term relationships. Indeed, researchers have shown that men respond more readily to sexy clothing when seeking a short-term relationship, perhaps because more modest attire is a more effective signal of sexual fidelity, a top priority for men in the marriage market, regardless of nation or tribe.
Purposeful slovenliness can have its reasons, then, but what about carelessness? One possible justification is that, for many people, paying attention to their own looks is just too expensive. Clothes are cheap, thanks to imports, but looking good can be costly for humans, just as it is for other species. Modern humans who want to strut their evolutionary stuff have to worry about their tails too: They have to work them off.
Since most of us are no longer paid to perform physical labor, getting exercise requires valuable time and energy, to say nothing of a costly gym membership. And then there is the opportunity cost—the pleasure lost by forgoing fried chicken and Devil Dogs. This held true even if a man's profile was filled with highly desirable personal qualities , such as being respectful, honest and trustworthy.
Both daughters and mothers rated the attractive and moderately attractive men as more desirable dating partners than unattractive men, said the findings, published online in March in the journal Evolutionary Psychological Science. Previous research on this subject has given conflicting results. Some studies have suggested that both parents and their adult children especially daughters may say that personality is more important than looks in a potential mate, with these individuals typically ranking physical attractiveness lower on a list of personality characteristics.
In the new study, researchers looked at 80 daughters and 61 mothers. In one experiment, each woman was shown color photographs of three men. Here is what I notice in terms of appearance, in order, in a girl when I'm out:. I tried to tell my friend Margaret that I noticed eyes before anything else. But she was quick to point out that I won't approach a girl who is not petite and is not shorter than me.
I'm average height and my first few girlfriends I ever had were all petite. So I guess I've just developed attraction to that type of figure. Eyes - The most attractive communicate a lot in general, but they also say that there are hidden things that-- if I'm lucky to get close to that person--I will discover. Not all eyes have that little glimmer that sets me on fire, but when I see that glimmer it's an amazing experience.
Smile - Smiling a lot is key. Almost all smiles I've seen in my experience are pretty. Style - When a girl has exceptional, classy or edgy style, it is really attractive, and it almost always enhances her natural appearance. Individuals confessed being more interested in dating confederates of similar attractivness, and not confederates of higher or lower attractiveness.
The results of this study supported the matching phenomenon indicating that this is normally accurate. So, we can assume with all of this information that looks do in fact matter. That being said, it is important to take your own physical appearance seriously, especially when interviewing for a job, going on a date, etc. One should always make an effort to understand an individual regardless of their appearance, before making potentially inaccurate judgments.
Schneider, F. Applied social psychology: understanding and addressing social and practical problems. Los Angeles: Sage. Van Straaten, I. Meeting your match: How attractiveness similarity affects approach behavior in mixed-sex dyads. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, This entry was posted on Thursday, April 6th, at pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2. You can leave a comment , or trackback from your own site.
We chose a similar approach to writing our blog posts this week. It definitely is unfortunate how much looks do in fact matter. We all fall prey to judging someone by their looks, whether we want to or not.
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