In 2007, researchers at Aberdeen University’s Face Research Laboratory showed that women found the face of a man more attractive when the face of a woman was smiling at it. (NewScientist) Biologists have a term, “mate choice copying”, for similar behavior in birds.
I was looking at some photos of couples on FaceStat and wanted to run a quick and dirty version of this experiment, and including the other FaceStat variables. I photoshopped out the girl from guy/girl photos and reuploaded. The results followed the same trend as the Aberdeen study (although the Turkers are mixed gender). The strongest, most consistent difference for the photoshopped photo was in relationship status (more single, obviously) and in attractiveness (25% of people found them less attractive). Some examples:
Some details and other results:
The guy’s face was clearly identified in the couple photo. I know this because 100% of Turkers classified the person in the couple photo as male.
The single guys were also consistently identified as more conservative and heavier.
-Mike
Adrian Kuhn
04/19/08
There is a German saying: Frauen schmücken sich mit Schmuck, Männer schmücken sich mit Frauen
tess
04/24/08
heh that is very cool. good photoshopping also.
my question is how can us ladies get our attractiveness rating up? facestat is a harsh judger on that score from my personal experience, :)
Cody
05/06/08
What if some of the difference has to do with the photoshopping itself? if the alterations change attributes about the individual that are related to attractiveness (e.g. degree of symmetry) then that might be corrupting the experiment somewhat.
V.
06/08/08
Maybe it was the context??? The original photos look like a sweet couple having fun. Aren’t they cute?
Alone, the men just look disheveled (crooked tie and awkward stance) and tad creepy.
Kelli
01/03/09
Oh, I always think taken men are hotter. Not only is he cute but now I can see that he is actually intelligent and charming enough to be with someone. I mean look at how happy that girl is next to him. That could be me! Now I’m not picturing him approaching me at some bar and I’m wondering if he’s a creep. I’m picturing myself as the smiling girlfriend in this picture perfect shot.
KalenaB
12/23/09
I guess it’s all in what you are looking for – the challenge of having someone who is “taken” show an interest in you, or if you are looking for someone who is unattached and wouldn’t show interest in someone else if YOU were dating them. What goes around comes around and I would be much less interested in someone who is already in a relationship than someone who is not.