i have this disease where i find a guy more attractive after i find out other girls find him attractive. what the heck is my problem? am i a social validation whore? or just plain insecure?
Human attraction on second thought POSTED: 3:48 a.m. EST, January 17, 2007
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but other people's opinions matter too when it comes to the attraction between men and women, according to researchers.
They found women are more attracted to a man if other women like him too.
"We tend to think about things like attraction as reflecting a private decision or a personal choice but our work shows that people's attractiveness judgments can be influenced in pronounced ways by what other people appear to think of those individuals," said psychologist Dr. Ben Jones.
Jones, of the University of Aberdeen, and his team tested the impact of the opinions of others by giving women a test in which they had to choose the more attractive of pairs of male faces and to rate how much more handsome they found them.
They were then shown a short video in which the same faces were displayed. But each face was being looked at by a woman smiling or one showing a bored or neutral expression.
After watching the video, the researchers repeated the initial test.
"We found that the slide show caused women to become more attracted to the men who were being smiled at by other women," said Jones.
The test had the opposite effect on men however, possibly because of the competition factor amongst males.
When men were asked to look at the same male faces, those who got the approving female glances became less appealing.
"This shows that people are using cues to the attitudes of others towards individuals to shape their own attractiveness judgments of those individuals," Jones told Reuters.
The findings, which are reported in The Proceedings of The Royal Society B journal, are similar to mate-choice copying seen in other species and are thought to be the first time it has been shown in humans.
Positive female interest in the faces increased the women's preference for the males but it had the opposite effect on male judgments.
Jones suggests the positive reaction conveys a sense of approval for women but the negative male reaction could reflect jealousy or competition.
"If I go to a bar with Brad Pitt, for example, chances are I'm not going to get much interest from the women because Pitt will hog all the attention," he said.
Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Ur just normal, hun
yeah it's weird. i think it's natural, b/c i definitely think it's wrong, but i subconsciously do it.
i actually read the article awhile back, it was a total coincidence that you brought it up today
voila the concept for a wingwoman
you're not alone.. women on the prowl are competitive beasts.
There's a famous Seinfeld Episode (The Bizarro Jerry - 8x03), where George illustrates this very phenomenon.
there's also that quote:
women aren't attracted to beautiful men, they're attracted to men who have beautiful women.
kind of true, right? i mean, if some fugly girl said "x" guy was hot.. you might not care so much... as opposed to if your hot girlfriend said it.
i think i'm the same way...although i'm still not attracted to guys after sarah sings their praises...i guess i'm just a little more stubborn. hah!
Comments (9)
It's not just you =)
Human attraction on second thought
POSTED: 3:48 a.m. EST, January 17, 2007
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but other people's opinions matter too when it comes to the attraction between men and women, according to researchers.
They found women are more attracted to a man if other women like him too.
"We tend to think about things like attraction as reflecting a private decision or a personal choice but our work shows that people's attractiveness judgments can be influenced in pronounced ways by what other people appear to think of those individuals," said psychologist Dr. Ben Jones.
Jones, of the University of Aberdeen, and his team tested the impact of the opinions of others by giving women a test in which they had to choose the more attractive of pairs of male faces and to rate how much more handsome they found them.
They were then shown a short video in which the same faces were displayed. But each face was being looked at by a woman smiling or one showing a bored or neutral expression.
After watching the video, the researchers repeated the initial test.
"We found that the slide show caused women to become more attracted to the men who were being smiled at by other women," said Jones.
The test had the opposite effect on men however, possibly because of the competition factor amongst males.
When men were asked to look at the same male faces, those who got the approving female glances became less appealing.
"This shows that people are using cues to the attitudes of others towards individuals to shape their own attractiveness judgments of those individuals," Jones told Reuters.
The findings, which are reported in The Proceedings of The Royal Society B journal, are similar to mate-choice copying seen in other species and are thought to be the first time it has been shown in humans.
Positive female interest in the faces increased the women's preference for the males but it had the opposite effect on male judgments.
Jones suggests the positive reaction conveys a sense of approval for women but the negative male reaction could reflect jealousy or competition.
"If I go to a bar with Brad Pitt, for example, chances are I'm not going to get much interest from the women because Pitt will hog all the attention," he said.
Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Ur just normal, hun
yeah it's weird. i think it's natural, b/c i definitely think it's wrong, but i subconsciously do it.
i actually read the article awhile back, it was a total coincidence that you brought it up today
voila the concept for a wingwoman
you're not alone.. women on the prowl are competitive beasts.
There's a famous Seinfeld Episode (The Bizarro Jerry - 8x03), where George illustrates this very phenomenon.
there's also that quote:
women aren't attracted to beautiful men, they're attracted to men who have beautiful women.
kind of true, right? i mean, if some fugly girl said "x" guy was hot.. you might not care so much... as opposed to if your hot girlfriend said it.
i think i'm the same way...although i'm still not attracted to guys after sarah sings their praises...i guess i'm just a little more stubborn. hah!
Comments are closed.