Category: Social psychology

People rated someone’s attractiveness after they demonstrated emotions including happiness and fear.

Almost everyone has experienced a near instant attraction to another person, whether just social or something more.

According to new research, neuroscientists now think this could be down to an instant ability to read facial emotions.

People who find each other’s emotions easy to read are naturally drawn to each other.

Reading emotions successfully gives people the feeling of understanding and connectedness.

The study’s author write:

“Humans interacting with other humans must be able to understand their interaction partner’s affect and motivations, often without words.

We asked participants to watch different persons experiencing different emotions.

We found the better a participant thought they could understand another person’s emotion the more they felt attracted toward that person.”

For the research, people were shown pictures of six women whose attractiveness they rated.

They then watched videos of the women demonstrating different facial emotions such as happiness and fear.

Participants then rated the women’s attractiveness again.

Brain scans showed that interpersonal attraction was linked to a kind of neural synchrony.

The study’s authors explain:

“Individual changes in interpersonal attraction were predicted by activity in the participant’s reward circuit, which in turn signaled how well the participant’s ‘neural vocabulary’ was suited to decode the other’s behavior.”

In other words, being able to read someone’s emotions successfully is a rough guide that they are similar to you.

Similarity and connectedness are two of the most important factors for interpersonal attraction.

As the study’s authors write:

“Being able to comprehend another person’s intentions and emotions is essential for successful social interaction.

To accomplish a common goal, partners must understand and continuously update information about their partner’s current intentions and motivation, anticipate the other’s behavior, and adapt their own behavior accordingly.”

Or, as the slightly cynical headline writers at GQ would have it: “Crying On A First Date Could Get You Laid”

https://www.spring.org.uk/2016/02/why-couples-differ-physical-attractiveness.php

The study was published in the journal PNAS (Anders et al., 2016).

Crying image from Shutterstock

From Texas to Tehran and from Dakar to Beijing, the results were the same.

Women who are almost underweight are most attractive to men, a recent study finds.

Dr Lobke Vaanholt, one of the study’s authors, said:

“Although most people will not be surprised that extreme thinness was perceived as the most attractive body type, since this prevails so heavily in media, culture and fashion, the important advance is that now we have an evolutionary understanding of why this is the case.”

For the research, people in 10 different countries were rated a deck of cards which showed various body shapes.

They were asked to put these in order from most to least attractive.

Women with a BMI of 19, which is on the borderline with being underweight, were preferred across the board.

From Texas to Tehran and from Dakar to Beijing, the results were the same.

As a woman’s BMI increased, they become progressively less attractive.

The simple reason men find a low BMI attractive is that it signals youth.

The typical BMI of an 18 to 20-year-old is between 17 and 20.

Professor John Speakman, who led the research, explained the evolutionary aspect of the findings:

“Fitness in evolutionary terms comprises two things: survival and the ability to reproduce.

What we wanted to investigate was the idea that when we look at someone and think they are physically attractive, are we actually making that assessment based on a hard-wired evolutionary understanding of their potential for future survival and reproductive ability?”

The study was published in the journal PeerJ (Wang et al., 2015).

Some types of faces are easier on the eye and the brain.

Simple faces are easier for the brain to process and store so we find them more attractive, new research suggests.

The study had men looking at pictures of women and ranking them.

Those ranked higher tended to have faces without distinguishing features.

The reason could be that the brain has a preference for looking at things which are easier to encode.

As the authors write:

“Sparseness was found [to be] positively correlated with attractiveness as rated by men and explained up to 17% of variance in attractiveness.

[…]

Our results show that female faces which are rated the most attractive by men should be the most sparsely coded by the primary visual cortex of these men.”

They continue:

“A century of research in empirical aesthetics has revealed preferences for certain forms and patterns that appear universal, being shared between societies in humans and between species.

[…]

The best documented of these preferences are for symmetrical, averaged and prototypical forms, curved contours and scale-invariant patterns.

[…] these preferred stimuli have in common to be efficiently coded by the perceptual system…”

In other words simple faces are literally easy on the eye and easy on the brain.

The study was published in the journal Royal Society Open Science (Renoult et al., 2016).

Pretty face image from Shutterstock

It’s more than just taller is better for men…

People choose partners who are a similar height to them because it’s in our genes, a new study finds.

For years its been known that people tend to choose partners who are a similar height to themselves.

This is despite the well-known preferences women have for taller men.

It turns out that the same genes which control our height also influence who we are attracted to.

Dr Albert Tenesa, the study’s first author, said:

“Our genes drive our attraction for partners of similar height to ours, i.e. tall people pair with tall people.

We found that 89% of the genetic variation affecting individual preferences for height and one’s own height are shared, indicating that there’s an innate preference for partners of similar height.”

The link between partner’s height is surprisingly accurate, Dr Tenesa said:

“Using one partner’s genes for height, we estimated the height of the chosen partner with 13% accuracy.

The similarity in height between partners is driven by the observed physical appearance of the partner, specifically their height, rather than influenced by the social or genetic structure of the population we live in.”

This is another study that supports the idea that most people are looking for someone similar to themselves, even similar DNA:

“Now you can add similar DNA to similar religion, race, income, education, body type and age, to the attributes which people look for in a partner, whether they know it or not.

New research shows that people are more likely to pick a mate with similar DNA, even after taking into account genetic similarities between people in a geographic location

[…]

Previous studies have shown that one of the strongest factors in choosing a partner is educational level.

This study found that the effect of similar DNA was about one-third that of education on mating choices.”

The study was published in the journal Genome Biology (Tenesa et al., 2016).

Image credit: hafecheese

The research gave people small dose of morphine, which stimulates the reward system.

Pretty faces activate the brain’s reward system, which is why they are so pleasant to look at, a new study finds.

Ms Olga Chelnokova, who led the study, explained:

“The reward system is involved in generating the experience of pleasure when, for instance, we enjoy tasty food or happen to win a lottery.

It turns out that the same system is also engaged in creating the feelings of pleasure when we look at a pretty face.”

In the study people were given a small dose of morphine, which stimulates the reward system.

They then looked at a series of faces which varied in attractivity.

Ms Chelnokova explained the results:

“Participants rated the most attractive faces as even more attractive, and were willing to do more presses on button that let them look at the picture for a longer time.

They also spent more time looking at the eyes of the people in the pictures.

Importantly, we observed the opposite behaviors when we blocked the reward system with another drug, such that, for instance, our participants gave lower ratings to the most attractive faces.”

In a further study, Ms Chelnokova tracked people’s eye movements while they looked at 3D faces.

Here is an image showing the typical pattern of which areas our eyes routinely scan.

Red areas are looked at the most, followed by yellow, green and blue.

Ms Chelnokova explained the results:

“The importance of the eyes in our evaluation of others has been well documented.

For instance, it is hard to recognize someone if their eyes are hidden, while if someone is lying to us, we can often see it in their eyes.

In general, if we are to understand how another person feels, the eyes can give us most of the required information.”

Along with the nose and cheeks, the eyes are especially important for us.

The studies were part of Ms Chelnokova’s PhD.

Pretty face image from Shutterstock

Why strangers who do this together are more likely to date.

There’s little doubt that humour is romantically attractive — but the question is why?

Could it be about displaying your intelligence to a prospective partner?

Actually it’s about much more than that according to Dr Jeffrey Hall, the author of a new study on the subject:

“The idea that humor is a signal of intelligence doesn’t give humor its due credit.

If you meet someone who you can laugh with, it might mean your future relationship is going to be fun and filled with good cheer.”

In fact, Dr Hall suggests there are four reasons humour is romantically attractive:

1. Displaying an agreeable and social personality. Dr Hall said: “Part of what it means to be social is the ability to joke along with people.”
2. Gauging interest. Dr Hall said: “Men are trying to get women to show their cards. For some men it is a conscious strategy.”
3. Following the unwritten script that men are jokers and women are laughers. Dr Hall said: “The script is powerful and it is enduring, and it dictates everything from asking someone out to picking up the tab.”
4. Humour is valuable for its own sake. Dr Hall said: “Shared laughter might be a pathway toward developing a more long-lasting relationship.”

The study found that the more a man tries to be funny and the more a woman laughs, the more likely the woman is to be interested in a date.

An even better indicator of romantic interest is when the couple are seen laughing together.

The conclusions come from a study of 51 pairs of single, heterosexual college students.

They met each other for the first time and talked for 10 minutes.

The psychologists found that both men and women tried to be funny an equal amount.

But it was the man’s humour, along with the woman’s response, that was critical to romantic interest.

Unexpectedly, the researchers found no connection between humour and intelligence.

The study was published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology (Hall, 2015).

Romance image from Shutterstock

Could these 36 questions help you form the most intimate relationship of your life?

These 36 questions to fall in love could make you closer and more intimate with another person than with anyone else in your life — in just 45 minutes.

When New York psychologist Professor Arthur Aron and colleagues used these questions experimentally, they discovered that 30% of people formed their closest ever human relationship.

And, on average, people had become at least as close as their average established relationship, which had taken years to form.

The questions, published in the journal Interpersonal Closeness, were originally designed to create closeness between two people so that psychologists could study how relationships form (Aron et al., 1997).

Apart from anything else, though, most people found it really fun.

The instructions start with the following:

“We believe that the best way for you to get close to your partner is for you to share with them and for them to share with you.

In order to help you get close we’ve arranged for the two of you to engage in a kind of sharing game.

One of you should read aloud the first [question] and then BOTH do what it asks, starting with the person who read the slip aloud.

When you are both done, go on to the second [question] — one of you reading it aloud and both doing what it asks.

Alternate who reads aloud (and thus goes first) with each new [question].” (Aron et al., 1997).

And here are the questions:

36 Questions To Fall In Love – Set 1

1. Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?

2. Would you like to be famous? In what way?

3. Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say? Why?

4. What would constitute a “perfect” day for you?

5. When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?

6. If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you want?

7. Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?

8. Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common.

9. For what in your life do you feel most grateful?

10. If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?

11. Take four minutes and tell your partner your life story in as much detail as possible.

12. If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?

36 Questions To Fall In Love – Set Two

1. If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future or anything else, what would you want to know?

2. Is there something that you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven’t you done it?

3. What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?

4. What do you value most in a friendship?

5. What is your most treasured memory?

6. What is your most terrible memory?

7. If you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are now living? Why?

8. What does friendship mean to you?

9. What roles do love and affection play in your life?

10. Alternate sharing something you consider a positive characteristic of your partner. Share a total of five items.

11. How close and warm is your family? Do you feel your childhood was happier than most other people’s?

12. How do you feel about your relationship with your mother?

36 Questions To Fall In Love – Set Three

1. Make three true “we” statements each. For instance, “We are both in this room feeling …”

2. Complete this sentence: “I wish I had someone with whom I could share …”

3. If you were going to become a close friend with your partner, please share what would be important for him or her to know.

4. Tell your partner what you like about them; be very honest this time, saying things that you might not say to someone you’ve just met.

5. Share with your partner an embarrassing moment in your life.

6. When did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself?

7. Tell your partner something that you like about them already.

8. What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about?

9. If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you most regret not having told someone? Why haven’t you told them yet?

10. Your house, containing everything you own, catches fire. After saving your loved ones and pets, you have time to safely make a final dash to save any one item. What would it be? Why?

11. Of all the people in your family, whose death would you find most disturbing? Why?

12. Share a personal problem and ask your partner’s advice on how he or she might handle it. Also, ask your partner to reflect back to you how you seem to be feeling about the problem you have chosen.

Intimate conversation image from Shutterstock

Students whose looks are above average get the best grades.

A new study finds that students who are rated as more attractive get better grades and are more likely to go to college.

The study followed about 9,000 US adolescents from high school in the 1990s, through until they were in their 30s (Gordon et al., 2014).

They found that students who were rated as more attractive were also given higher grades by their teachers.

But students only needed to be somewhat above average to see the advantage. The super-good-looking had no advantage over those who were above average.

This may be because being more attractive had a negative side–it was associated with more partying, dating and general social distractions.

Interestingly, being average in appearance produced no benefits in GPA scores against those with below average looks.

Why do looks affect grades?

This study can’t directly tell us why being attractive is good for your grades, but some have suggested that it is because teachers give higher grades to attractive students.

Studies on children at elementary school, for example, have found that teachers give higher academic ratings to those who are more attractive.

But the real story is probably more complicated than that. Academic outcomes are tied up with social outcomes. Students that do well socially also tend to do well academically:

“…visible characteristics like attractiveness, as opposed to averageness, gave students greater entrée and assuredness in initial interactions and greater forgiveness for foibles and missteps in later interactions, something particularly valuable in the large impersonal world of high school. In this context, average-looking youth had relatively few chances for standing out or opportunities to gain status in a competitive playing field.” (Gordon et al., 2014).

Lookism

High school is likely just the first step in discovering how important looks are.

There are some disadvantages to being very beautiful, such as the perception that it’s all about the looks and not talent, and women can face discrimination in some stereotypically masculine professions.

However, beautiful people get paid more, are more desired by others and have higher self-esteem.

It’s all part of discovering that, unfortunately, as teenagers are often heard to moan: life’s not fair.

→ Read on: 10 Pleasures and Pains of Being Beautiful

Image credit: Walt Stoneburner