What Is Beautiful Feels Good: Affective Reactions to Physical Attractiveness

Previous research has consistently demonstrated that variations in physical attractiveness elicit different evaluative and behavioral responses. To assess differences in affective responses to variations in physical attractiveness and the affect of sex on those responses, 76 college students (31 male and 45 female) viewed colored slides of an attractive or unattractive member of the same or opposite sex. The attractiveness classification of the target slides was based on ratings from a pilot study. Subjects then indicated their reaction to the target person on the Impression Formation Index, a seven-point scale. As predicted, physically attractive individuals evoked more favorable affective reactions than did unattractive individuals; this relationship was especially true of opposite sex individuals. For same-sex individuals, unattractive individuals evoked more favorable affective reactions than did attractive individuals. Future research might assess the evaluative, behavioral, and affective dimensions of the physical attractiveness stereotype to determine the extent to which they are related with the affect-attraction theoretical framework. (Author/JAC)