Sexual Attraction
Introduction
I. A predictable series of mental & bodily processes characterizes sexual interactions:
A. Sexual attraction to potential sex partner
B. Psychological sexual arousal &
C. Physiological changes in genitals
II. This is called the sexual response cycle; it precedes & accompanies sexual behavior
A. The sequence is not universal
III. But the sexual response cycle is still useful to discuss the key processes underlying sexuality
Sexual Attraction: It Takes Two
I. Sexual attraction is an erotically charged orientation toward a specific other person
A. It may be calm & controlled or it may be madly impetuous
B. It may be felt at the first meeting (love at first sight) or it may build over time
II. Sexual attraction is different from simple liking; in fact, we may be attracted sexually to people
we dislike or to people we don't know well enough to like or dislike
A. It is also different from the judgment that a person is attractive - a heterosexual woman might
judge that another woman is attractive, but not be sexually attracted to her
III. Since sexual; attraction involves two people, it can be approached in 2 ways: what causes a
person to be attractive & what causes a person to experience attraction?
Beauty Is Not Entirely in the Eye of the Beholder
I. Beauty can be defined as the attributes that combine to make a person sexually attractive
A. Thus, beauty can include many things, ranging from physical traits to less tangible attributes
B. Our looks, however, are the first cues to attractiveness that are available to others
II. The saying "beauty is in eye of beholder" suggests that everything is subjective or idiosyncratic –
that there are no objective traits that make a person more or less attractive to people, in general
A. In fact, psychologists have found a considerable degree of consensus on the topic of beauty
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B. They have identified certain characteristics that influence the attractiveness of faces & other
physical features, no matter who is doing the judging
Characteristics That Influence the Attractiveness of Faces & Other Physical Features - Symmetry
I. Symmetry – humans look for symmetry in their mates, both in industrialized countries & in huntergatherer societies
II. The more symmetrical a person's face, the more attractive, sexy & healthy that person seems to
others; symmetry raises the attractiveness of the remainder of the body, too
A. There are possible evolutionary explanations for why asymmetry is unattractive – referring to
random or fluctuating asymmetry not the planned asymmetry of e.g., the heart within the thorax
B. Since a single genetic program guides development of left & right sides of the body, a high degree
of fluctuating asymmetry can arise only if the genetic program has been derailed in some way
1. Either the person's genes were of poor quality or they ran into some kind of interference (like
an infection) during development
2. Indeed, people with asymmetric features are more likely to suffer from a variety of disorders
than are more symmetrical people, such as:
3. Thus, it is plausible that evolution would favor the spread of genes that give us the ability to
assess symmetry as well as the motivation to prefer it
III. Of course, there are other cues to a person's health besides symmetry; these include clear skin,
glossy hair, freedom from visible defects & diseases, etc.
Characteristics That Influence the Attractiveness of Faces & Other Physical Features –
Masculinity- Femininity
I. Masculinity-femininity – it is possible to computer-generate a face that morphs continuously from a
hypermasculine face through an androgynous face to a hyperfeminine face
II. Most people judge faces near the extremes of this range to be most attractive; this suggests that
masculinity-femininity is an important dimension of attractiveness
A. The actual cues to the masculinity-femininity of faces are such things as:
1. Jaw width
2. Mouth & nose width
3. Chin size
4. Lip fullness
5. Eyebrow bushiness
6. Eye size
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B. Such differences are largely generated under the influence of androgens (male traits) & estrogens
(female traits) at puberty
III. Why are these sexually differentiated traits attractive, in an evolutionary sense?
A. In part, they simply announce that the person has undergone a sex-typical puberty & is therefore
likely to be fertile
B. In addition, the traits may be advantageous in themselves
1. Victor Johnson has suggested
Characteristics That Influence the Attractiveness of Faces & Other Physical Features Babyfacedness
I. Babyfacedness – traits indicative of passage through puberty (& thus fertility) are thought attractive so you
would not expect that making an adult face more like a young child's would increase attractiveness
II. However, research at Univ. of Regensberg, Germany, shows exactly this
A. They first quantified facial proportions of children by computer-averaging the faces of a number
of actual 4 – 6 year old children & measuring the layout of facial features on this averaged image
III. How can one explain this paradoxical finding?
A. The main feature of children's faces that enhances attractiveness of adult women's faces are the
low position of the facial features on the head, a prominent forehead, large eyes & a small nose
B. Thus, adult women who happen to have somewhat babyfaced features (like Kate Moss),
according to the German researchers, may co-opt those positive feelings
The Attractiveness of Bodies May Be Related to Reproductive Success
I. Men's & women's bodies are more distinct than are men's & women's faces
A. Like facial attractiveness, bodily attractiveness is often a matter of being near one or the other
extreme of the masculine-feminine continuum
B. In general, then, it is likely that attractiveness of a body signals information about its sexual
differentiation under the influence of sex hormones
II. One simple variable, the waist-to-hip ratio has an important influence on attractiveness
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A. After puberty, women store much of their fat in the area of the hips, buttocks & thighs
1. Men tend to accumulate their fat higher in the body, at the waist & above
2. For this reason, & also on account of skeletal differences between sexes, ratio of the body
circumference at waist to the body circumference at the hip is lower for women than for men
B. Women judge men to be most attractive if they have a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.9, while men judge
women to be most attractive if they have a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7 – 0.8
1. These preferences hold up across diverse cultures
C. Although the waist-to-hip ratio may be a universal indicator of attractiveness, absolute body
fatness is not
1. In present US culture, thin women are generally considered more attractive than those who are
average weight or obese, at least judging by appearance of successful female models/film stars
2. The same was true in some periods of Western history
III. Female breasts are obviously sexually attractive to many men, but the issue of breast size is less
clear; psychological research has produced equivocal findings
A. One study found that increasing breast size has no effect on the perceived attractiveness of
women to men
B. A more recent study found that men did prefer breasts of larger-than-average size, but not nearly
as large as women thought men liked
IV. In terms of men's bodies, studies found that width of the shoulders & size of pectoral muscles (pecs)
influenced women's ratings of male attractiveness, presumably by increasing their perceived strength
A. Men have used clothing & adornment to increase their apparent shoulder width since time
immemorial
B. Interestingly, women with a need to assert strength (historical female monarchs & contemporary
women in the male-dominated business world) have followed the same strategy
C. As with women's breasts, there is a disconnect between reality & perceptions when it comes to
male muscularity
V. Are these various cues to attractiveness genetically hardwired into our brains or are they a matter of
learning & culture? To answer this question, comparisons have been made across cultures
A. In the case of female breasts, some human cultures place little emphasis on them as sexually
attractive features & do not require women to cover them
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B. People generally find faces of individuals from their own ethnic group more attractive than faces
from other groups, a finding that almost certainly reflects an influence of culture
C. However, individuals in different cultures rely on similar cues to attractiveness
1. Furthermore, people make consistent judgments of faces from other cultures
D. If there is any universality to attractiveness, one wonders whether very young children are
sensitive to it —> it seems that they are
E. From the general appearance of a person's face & body, we can assess their age, which is an
important criterion for attractiveness in women, at least according to men
1. When judging women solely by physical appearance, men find women decreasingly attractive
as women progress from the late teen years onward
2. A preference for women of youthful appearance is found in men of all ages, but is most
marked for younger men
F. The cosmetic enhancements that people use to increase their own attractiveness often involve the
exaggeration of sexually differentiated traits
VI. It's worth stressing that the process of judging visual attractiveness is a largely unconscious process
A. When men are asked to choose the more attractive of 2 women's faces & then asked why they
found that face more attractive, they will give detailed, persuasive reasons for their choice
1. They answered as if they had carefully thought the matter through before choosing
B. It's as if consciousness simply provides a plausible explanation for choices that are really made at
a much deeper level of the mind
Attractiveness Involves Senses Besides Vision
I. Although we tend to rely mostly on our eyes to assess physical attractiveness of potential partners,
other senses also play a role
A. Besides touch, hearing & olfaction may also be important
1. Men's voices are generally deeper-pitched than those of women, reflecting the sexual
differentiation of the larynx at puberty
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II. Everybody knows that body odor can have a strong influence on a person's attractiveness
A. Some researchers, however, have gone further, claiming that specific sex pheromones in men &
women influence sexual arousal through unconscious olfactory mechanisms
B. This topic is highly controversial & is not well understood at this time, but there is one intriguing
experiment – Randy Thornhill & Steven Gangestad
C. Besides the issue of pheromones, there have been claims that people use olfaction to avoid
inbreeding
1. It has been found that they prefer the body odor of persons who are genetically different from
themselves in a class of genes called the major histocompatibility complex (MHC)
Behavior Influences Sexual Attractiveness
I. Talk of physical beauty can have a downside because it can provoke anxiety among people who think
their faces or bodies fall short of the standards necessary to attract a desirable partner
A. Such anxiety is seldom justified for a number of reasons
B. One can speak of behavioral beauty that can be at least partially independent of physical beauty
C. Presumably, sexual attractiveness influences the desirability of partners for casual encounters or
dating relationships more than it does for longer-term, live-in relationships like marriage
II. Studies have been done in which men & women were questioned about traits they would value in a
casual or short-term sex partner
A. Most such studies report that physical appearance is the most important criterion used by both
men & women in choosing casual sex partners, but many personality traits are also highly rated
B. It may be that even when people are hooking up, they are still unconsciously evaluating the
person they are hooking up with as a potential long-term partner
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III. To fully understand behavioral beauty, one must go beyond surveys & use tests closer to real-life
situations
A. Both men & women say that they value a sense of humor in their sex partners, but what do they
actually mean by that?
1. A group of psychologists presented subjects with photos of people along with humorous or
nonhumorous statements that they had supposedly written
B. Why then do men say they value a sense of humor in their partners?
C. In a potentially sexual situation, laughter often signals sexual receptivity
D. In one study, men & women were asked to list desirable characteristics in romantic partners &
then were invited to a "speed-dating" event
1. Speed-dating – an event in which people meet a large number of potential partners in a
sequence of brief one-on-one conversations
E. It's been found often that men are more interested than women in physical attractiveness of their
prospective sex partners; women are more interested than men in partners' wealth/social status
1. What happens when women themselves acquire wealth or power?
F. Some studies report different results, however – namely, that women who have many resources
tend to focus more on their partners' physical attractiveness & less on their pocketbooks
IV. The importance of behavioral beauty in sexual attraction comes to the fore when people are actually
negotiating sexual interactions – when they are flirting, in other words
Familiarity Both Increases & Decreases Attraction
I. How attractive we find people (& things in general) is strongly influence by our prior experience, but
this influence can work in either direction, making people or things more attractive or less attractive
A. Generally, mere exposure to any stimulus – whether it be particular music or food – makes us like
that stimulus better when we encounter it again, even if we don't recall having experienced it before
II. Since we see our own face a lot, are we especially attracted to our own face or to faces like our own?
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A. This is a tricky question to answer
B. A Scottish research group got around these problems in an ingenious way
1. They took photographs of their subjects, then changed their apparent sex by computermorphing techniques; the subjects did not recognize themselves in their morphed twins
C. A related study was conducted by psychologists at the Univ. of Wisconsin (Mita et al., 1977)
1. The researchers showed subjects photographs of themselves as well as the same photographs
after left-right reversal
III. We are, in fact, attracted to people who resemble ourselves in a variety of traits – attitudes, age,
race, educational level, social status, etc.; this tendency is called homophily
A. However, most studies of homophily have been done on nonsexual forms of attraction (childhood
friendship or social networks)
B. Again, however, this does not really show that people are sexually attracted to people like
themselves
1. For one thing, people are not usually able to partner with the person they find most attractive;
they have to be satisfied with a relationship they feel is "fair"
2. In addition, sexual partnerships are usually established within a socially circumscribed
environment
3. All these factors are likely to cause sex partners to resemble each other more than would be
expected on chance basis, even if people have little intrinsic preference for similar sex partners
IV. There are some circumstances in which familiarity can reduce attractiveness
A. For example, being close to another child (like a sibling) during early childhood makes it unlikely
that one will find that person sexually attractive in adult life
V. Sexual familiarity may also reduce attractiveness
A. In animals, it is well known that males who have just mated will mate again more promptly if
presented with a novel female; this is called the Coolidge Effect
1. How did the Coolidge Effect get its name as a phenomenon of arousal by a novel sex partner
& how was this phenomenon associated with Calvin Coolidge, the 29th President of US
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B. There has never been a full-scale test of the Coolidge Effect in humans, but there is something
close – researchers at the Univ. of North Dakota (Plaud., 1977)
1. Researchers recruited male psychology students for a study that involved listening to erotic
tapes narrated by a female student
2. Students' sexual arousal – monitored by strain gauges placed around their penises – declined if
the same tapes were repeated (habituation), but remained high if new tapes were played
C. Habituation also affects real sexual relationships
1. Both men & women derive less & less sexual satisfaction from their steady relationships as the
duration of the relationship increases & this effect is relationship-specific
2. It's likely, however, that couples can counteract this habituation to some extent by introducing
forms of novelty, other than novel partners
D. Falling in love vastly increases the physical & behavioral attractiveness of the beloved
Perceived Attractiveness Varies Around the Menstrual Cycle
I. Another way in which attractiveness is affected by factors intrinsic to the viewer has to do with the
menstrual cycle
A. 2 research groups have found that women prefer men with more masculine faces near the time of
ovulation, when they are most likely to conceive; they prefer less masculine faces at other times
B. These changes in women's perception of male attractiveness around the menstrual cycle have a
tempting explanation in terms of evolutionary psychology
C. Does this mean that partnered women are more likely to engage in sex outside the partnership
during the fertile days of their cycle? – it seems that they are
1. This is not to suggest that partnered women consciously set out to have babies by a "tall, dark
stranger"; indeed, a tall, dark baby might be difficult to explain to the rest of the family
II. Women's sexual attractiveness to men also varies around the menstrual cycle
A. Univ. of New Mexico psychologists demonstrated this by recording the tips received by female
lap dancers in "gentlemen's clubs"
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2. The researchers did not identify what exactly was more attractive about the women near the
time of ovulation, but….
B. Near ovulation, women's behavior also subtly changes to make them more attractive; they pay
more attention to grooming, make-up, ornamentation & clothes
Some People Do Not Experience Sexual Attraction
I. For reasons unknown, a small number of people experiences no (or very little) sexual attraction over
their entire lifetime
A. Such asexual people may still experience romantic attraction in the sense of desiring psychological
intimacy with a specific partner, but they do not desire to express that intimacy in physical sex
II. Asexuality is different from a conscious decision not to engage in sexual relationships (sexual
abstinence)
A. Nor does it stem from:
B. Because cultural forces emphasize the central place of sexuality in human life, asexual individuals
may be made to feel impaired, but in reality they function well in society
III. According to one study, self-identified asexual men & women say that their lack of sexual
motivation has both positive & negative effects on their lives
A. On the plus side
B. On the negative side
IV. Another study found that ~1% of the population is asexual
A. The study suggests that asexual people are more likely than others to be female, short, unhealthy,
uneducated & of low socioeconomic status
B. Example: David Jay – a 25-year-old St. Louis resident who founded the Asexual Visibility &
Education Network
C. The mention of sexual orientation reminds us that a person's sexual orientation is the most
dramatic example of an internal trait influencing sexual attraction
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