Attitudes: Love & Attraction

Psychology 40S

What is an attitude of liking or loving?

• Positive attitudes that are associated with interpersonal attraction

What factors contribute to attraction?

• Physical appearance
• Similarity
• Reciprocity

Physical Appearance

• A key factor in attraction & consideration of romantic partners

• Many standards of beauty are cross cultural
• Study showed that British and Japanese men preferred women with large eyes, high
cheekbones, and narrow jawlines
• Artwork suggests that ancient Greeks and Egyptians also found these features attractive
• European males are more likely to prefer slender women
• African or Latin males are more likely to be interested in women with thicker bodies

Gender Differences in Selection of a Romantic Partner

• Women place emphasis on traits like professional status, consideration, dependability, kindness,
and fondness for children
• Men place emphasis on physical allure, cooking ability, and thrift
• U.S.A women will marry someone not good looking, but not someone without a job

How Does Evolution Play a Role?

• Men place more emphasis on physical appearance in mate selection

• Woman place emphasis on financial status and reliability
• These traits provide reproductive advantage and ensure survival for humans

Parental Investment Model

• A woman’s appeal is more strongly connected with her age and health
• These are markers of reproductive capacity
• Male value is intertwined with factors that contribute for a stable child raising environment

Attraction-Similarity Hypothesis

• People tend to develop romantic relationships with people who are similar to themselves in
attractiveness and other traits
• Many partners tend to be similar in race, ethnicity, age, education, and religion
• Highly educated people are more likely to marry people of other races

Propinquity

• “Marriages are made in the neighbourhood”

 Attitudes: Love & Attraction
Psychology 40S

• We tend to live near people similar to us in background and will come into contact with them
more often

Reciprocity

• A determinant of attraction
• We are more open, warm, and helpful when we are interacting with people who seem to like us

Love

• A strong, positive emotion

• The dramatic heated, passionate love is labeled romantic love

Triangular model of love

• Love involves 3 components:

o Intimacy
▪ A couple’s closeness, mutual concern, and sharing of resources
o Passion
▪ Romance and sexual feelings
o Commitment
▪ Deciding to enhance and maintain the relationship

Consummate Love

• Combines all 3 components

Romantic Love

• Characterized by passion and intimacy