The Attractiveness of Romantic Couples and its Effects on
Students' Perceptions of Potential Dating Partners

Student Researcher: Nadine G. Gabbadon. This paper is based on an undergraduate Honors thesis.

Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Shyam Sundar Sethuraman


Introduction

Numerous research studies have shown that the media have a strong effect on people and their beliefs about the world around them, even when they relate to personal issues such as self-esteem and fear of violence. The present study aims to further explore the media’s effects on people by examining romantic relationships. Specifically, this study examines the “matching phenomenon” which is based on the theory that romantic partners match each other in attractiveness. Cultivation theory suggests that people who watch a significant amount of television will hold distinctive concepts of reality that stem from, and are congruent with, the images and values they see in the media. Since most romantic couples shown in the media match in attractiveness, the present study aims to determine if the media may cultivate attitudes in people that tell them that they need to match their dating partner in attractiveness as well.


Hypothesis

H1: Participants who are exposed to couples that match in attractiveness, will demonstrate greater belief in the need to match their romantic partner in attractiveness compared to participants who are exposed to couples that do not match in attractiveness.


Method

A total of 62 participants voluntarily took part in this experiment. First, a pretest for attractiveness was conducted, generating the five most attractive males, five most attractive females, five least attractive males, and five least attractive females, from a pool of 200 combinations of faces (male and female). The selected faces were then arranged to create four experimental conditions: couples of attractive female – attractive male (AFAM), unattractive female – attractive male (UFAM), attractive female – unattractive male (AFUM), and unattractive female – unattractive male (UFUM). Two versions of the questionnaire had couples that matched in attractiveness, while the other two had couples that did not match in attractiveness. These different versions were distributed to participants in a random fashion. The questionnaire included 27 measures pertaining to three broad categories: perceptions of the faces on the first page, opinions on whether romantic couples should match in various areas in life, and personal feelings about dating someone who does/does not match oneself in attractiveness.

 


Results

The dependent measures used in this study were divided into 7 indices: Attractiveness Matching, Dating Someone More Attractive, Couples That Don’t Match in Attractiveness, Perceived Contentment of Faces, Backgrounds of Couples, Matching of Faces, and Attractiveness of Faces.

H1: Not supported. None of the seven factors were affected by the attractiveness matching of the faces. Attractiveness matching of the faces did not significantly alter the subjects’ perceptions of whom they themselves could date. However, further analyses revealed that the subjects’ perceptions of the couples’ attractiveness did influence some of their perceptions. Subjects who perceived the males as more attractive than the females were more likely to believe that couples should match in attractiveness, that matching in attractiveness was important for couples to be happy and stable, and that they could date someone who was more attractive than themselves.


Conclusion

While most studies about the matching phenomenon research people’s actions, this study focused on their perceptions. Although the proposed hypothesis was not supported, the findings indicate that the subjects’ perceptions of the attractiveness of the faces impacted some of their beliefs about whether couples should match in attractiveness and whether they would feel comfortable dating someone more or less attractive than themselves. More specifically, the results of this current study seem to suggest that people may be more prone to think that couples should match in attractiveness, and also to want to date someone more attractive than themselves.


For more details/information about this study, please contact:

Shyam Sundar Sethuraman
Associate Professor & Co-Director,
Media Effects Research Laboratory
College of Communications
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802
Ph: (814) 865-2173
E-mail: sss12@psu.edu

Back to Research Projects Page

Media Effects Research Laboratory
306, James Building
University Park, PA 16801