Psyc 360 1st Edition Lecture 17 Outline of Last Lecture I Losing Yourself a Deindividuation and the Group Mind Outline of Current Lecture II Attraction Is Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder III Close Relationships Current Lecture Does culture influence our idea of beauty Culture where infants are bound with neck rings and continues to do so until adulthood Long necks beauty Tattoos eating disorders Botox tanning steroids in Western Society Mutilating our Bodies All of these are private conformity because it is the right thing to do Thinness is ideal in Western society but in cultures where food is scarce thinness is considered bad poor Time Periods also influence our idea of beauty Marilyn Monroe compared to Kierra Knightly Situational Malleability Study one condition married men are shown pictures of women from newspapers and then shown a picture of their wife and are told to rate their wives physical attractiveness all of which rated the attractiveness high The second condition married men were shown porn and then a picture of their wife and then asked to rate their wives physical attractiveness all of which rated their wives physical attractiveness low Bridge study Men walked across a wooden rickety bridge over a valley to a woman on the other side and she approached them immediately after getting off the bridge and they talked and before leaving gave him her number Waited to see if the man called within a week The second condition they also walked across the bridge but the These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute woman waited to talk to them until they had been off the bridge for a while That was the only difference in the study Misattribution Arousal attributing arousal to something that didn t cause it o the men that were approached immediately called back What people perceive to be beautiful amounts to what is going on in their head So beauty is in the eye of the beholder based on this evidence Attractiveness is inherent Infants will look at a person that adults find more attractive longer than a less attractive person Attractive features Waist to Hip ratio stayed the same over time Face symmetry Reproductive ability and ability to reduce healthy off spring Mutations lead to less symmetry less attractiveness Evolutionary factors Attractive people procreate and their genes end up in the gene pool Seek mates with good genes Subtle patterns among women o Women s preferences for things like symmetry will vary over a particular time span within a month due to the ovulation cycle o During the latter half of follicular phase conception likelihood is high and low in luteal phase o Women prefer symmetry in men during the highest likelihood of conception Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but some people are just intrinsically more attractive Close Relationships We remain committed to dissatisfying relationships because we run the numbers And we stay in a satisfying relationships but aren t committed Humans form pair bonds but baboons do not Evolution of romantic love sometime within the last 5 million years Why do we form pair bonds