Hotties Not So Hot When You’re In Love

by David Evans on March 1, 2008   in Research

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Martie Haselton, associate professor of psychology and communication studies at UCLA, has co-authored a study with eHarmony research scientist Gian Gonzaga. The study found that asking coeds to reflect on the love they felt for their boyfriends or girlfriends blunted the appeal of especially attractive members of the opposite sex.

The researchers invited 120 heterosexual undergraduates in committed relationships to pore over photographs of attractive members of the opposite sex. “We got the photos from Hot or Not,” Haselton said, referring to the popular dating Web site, “and we only downloaded the hot ones.”

Synopsis: When you’re in love, everyone else looks ugly.

Score one for HotorNot morphing into a market research tool.

  

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    • { 2 comments… read them below or add one }

    1 Fernando Ardenghi March 1, 2008 at 5:29 pm
    When eHarmony’s research scientists are going to publish any serious scientific paper proving their matching algorithm works (as should expected)?

    Kindest Regards,

    Fernando Ardenghi.
    Buenos Aires.
    Argentina.
    ardenghifer@gmail.com

    2 James Houran March 3, 2008 at 3:55 pm
    This is the latest in a long line of studies on what is known as the “contrast effect.” For example, if we have recently seen a physically unattractive person, everyone we see afterwards seems more attractive (more so than they would have seemed had we seen the less attractive person beforehand). Similarly, if we have recently been exposed to a particularly attractive person (either in person or media), we will find that the people we used to consider physically attractive are no longer as attractive (e.g., Kenrick, Gutierres, & Goldberg, 1989; Kenrick, Neuberg, Zierk, & Krones, 1994; Weaver, Masland, & Zillman, 1984).

    Note, however, that the contrast effect is temporary. Interestingly, contrast effects also apply to self-evaluations of our own physical attractiveness (Brown, Novick, Lord, & Richards, 1992; Thornton & Moore, 1993).

    Thanks,

    James Houran, Ph.D.
    Online Dating Magazine

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