Around 2 percent of the world’s population is currently homeless — that’s 150 million people.
Been on an amazing holiday or had an extraordinary experience you’re dying to share? Why it may be better to play it down.
Many supposed signs of attraction were not linked to liking, the extensive research found.
Many supposed signs of attraction were not linked to liking, the extensive research found.
There are only five main body language signals that reliably indicate people like each other, research finds.
These are:
These are all nonverbal signs that people are developing trust and rapport with each other.
Many supposed signs of attraction were not linked to liking, the extensive research found.
These included:
Some of these might come as a surprise since many articles in the media frequently link them to liking.
People may still perform these gestures when they like you, but they are not reliably related to attraction, the study found.
Dr R. Matthew Montoya, the study’s first author, said:
“There is a specific suite of behaviors associated with liking, and this same set of behaviors can be found in cultures from around the world.”
The conclusions come from a meta-analysis, which brought together the results of 54 different studies.
These all looked at how much someone likes another person and how they act towards them.
It included descriptions from hundreds of different cultures.
The results are not just relevant for romantic attraction, but for any kinds of human liking, Dr Montoya said:
“Whether we engage in these behaviors has little or nothing to do with romantic desires.
These behaviors apply when doctors interact with their patients, parents interact with their kids, or when salespeople talk to their customers.”
Acting in these ways is about increasing trust, Dr Montoya said:
“When we like someone, we act in ways to get them to trust us.
From this perspective, we engage in these behaviors to increase the degree of overlap, interdependence, and commitment to an agreement.”
The study was published in the journal Psychological Bulletin (Montoya et al., 2018).
The feature is also linked to higher genetic fitness.
The feature is also linked to higher genetic fitness.
Longer legs make a man more attractive to women, research finds.
It’s not just about being taller, though.
Instead, it is about the ratio of leg to total height.
In other words, men with a slightly higher ratio of leg to body look more attractive to women.
The reason is that a slightly longer leg (in relation to the whole body) is a sign of genetic fitness.
For the research over 800 heterosexual women were shown a series of computer-generated images of men with slightly different leg and arm lengths.
While long arms weren’t much of a turn-on, the slightly longer leg was a winner.
The leg shouldn’t be excessively long, though, just a little bit more than normal.
Short legs are linked to heart disease, diabetes and dementia.
Very long legs are often linked to genetic problems.
The study’s authors explain their findings in evolutionary terms:
“From the perspective of evolutionary biology, attractiveness judgements reflect the biological fitness of a prospective mate (i.e. their ability to survive and reproduce in their environment), because a high-fitness mate is likely to be better able to provide resources, care, and protection, to be less likely to transmit harmful pathogens, and to pass on ‘good genes’ to the offspring.”
In case you want to check your own legs, the average leg-to-body ratio is 0.491.
The leg is measured from the hip to the ankle, then divide this by your height.
The magic number for the ‘perfect’ ratio is around 0.506.
The study was published in the journal Royal Society Open Science (Versluys et al., 2018).
Why people we anticipate meeting seem more attractive.
Kindness, cooperation, gossip, crowds, attraction — social psychology studies provide key insights into these phenomena.
Kindness, cooperation, gossip, crowds, attraction — social psychology studies provide key insights into these phenomena.
In an increasingly self-centred world, it is easy to discount the influence of other people’s behaviour.
People tend to assume their own personalities, preferences and judgments are what predicts their behaviour while forgetting that we are social creatures.
By paying attention to social psychology, we complete the picture of human behaviour.
So, below are 8 psychology studies from the members-only section of PsyBlog that reveal aspects of how other people influence our behaviour — and we theirs.
(If you are not already, find out how to become a PsyBlog member here.)
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Beauty really is more than skin-deep, psychologists find.
These positive personality traits can make people people look more attractive, psychologists find.
Positive personality traits — like helpfulness and honesty — make people appear physically more attractive, research finds.
Those displaying negative personality traits — like rudeness and unfairness — look physically less attractive to observers.
The finding is particularly strong for when women are evaluating men, since women place a little more emphasis on personality.
The finding helps justify those who say that ‘inner beauty’ is important.
Dr Gary W. Lewandowski, Jr., who led the research, said:
“Perceiving a person as having a desirable personality makes the person more suitable in general as a close relationship partner of any kind.”
For the study, participants viewed pictures of strangers and rated them for attractiveness.
Then they got some information about their personalities, and rated them again.
This mimics the way we evaluate people in real life.
First we just see them without known anything about their personality.
Then we adjust our view of them as we learn about their personality.
Those displaying positive personalities were deemed more attractive, the results showed.
It didn’t matter whether someone was in a relationship or not, or whether they were considering the person for a romantic relationship or not.
Dr Lewandowski said:
“This research provides a more positive alternative by reminding people that personality goes a long way toward determining your attractiveness; it can even change people’s impressions of how good looking you are.”
This study clearly shows that we can adjust our perception of someone’s physical attractiveness as we get more information about their personality.
The authors said that…
“…it demonstrates the substantial power of personality information, in that it is sufficient to overcome initial evaluations.”
The study was published in the journal Personal Relationships (Lewandowski et al., 2007).
The most useless jobs for society — as rated by the people who work in those jobs.
Psychologists go to surprising lengths to show how much a hug can help.
These personality traits are universally linked to higher social status.
These personality traits are universally linked to higher social status.
The traits that help a person climb the social ladder include honesty, intelligence and being hard-working, research finds.
Across 14 different countries and societies, researchers found that the traits linked to higher social status were remarkably consistent.
Similarly, being knowledgeable, making sacrifices for others and being kind increased a person’s social status.
Having a long-term mate is also seen as positive for social status for both men and women.
The traits that universally decreased a person’s social status are, unsurprisingly, being unclean, a thief and mean and nasty.
Professor David Buss, the study’s first author, said:
“Humans live in a social world in which relative rank matters for nearly everything — your access to resources, your ability to attract mates, and even how long you live.
From an evolutionary perspective, reproductively relevant resources flow to those high in status and trickle slowly, if at all, to those lower on the social totem pole.”
The researchers surveyed 2,751 people in 14 countries about 240 different factors that might affect a person’s social status.
The results showed that certain factors were widely perceived as positive, said Professor Buss:
“From the Gypsies in Romania to the native islanders of Guam, people displaying intelligence, bravery and leadership rise in rank in the eyes of their peers.
But possessing qualities that inflict costs on others will cause your status to plummet, whether you live in Russia or Eritrea.”
There were some interesting kinks in the results.
Men gain more status from taking risks and being physically brave.
Women gain more status from their appearance and domestic skills.
Apparently, not enough has changed in the gender wars in this respect.
A sense of humour, meanwhile, is generally positive for social status, but less so in East Asian countries like China, South Korea and Japan.
Practising witchcraft is only a problem for your social status if you happen to live in Eritrea or Zimbabwe, the research found.
Finally, catching a sexually transmitted disease, along with being dirty, unclean and nasty decrease a person’s social status, Professor Buss said:
“Although this study was conducted prior to the current pandemic, it’s interesting that being a disease vector is universally detrimental to a person’s status.
Socially transmitted diseases are evolutionarily ancient challenges to human survival, so humans have psychological adaptations to avoid them.
Lowering a person’s social status is an evolutionarily ancient method of social distancing from disease vectors.”
The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Buss et al., 2020).
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