bims-chumac 2022-01-02 papers

Issue of 2022–01–02
four papers selected by
Thomas Krichel, Open Library Society

J Pers. 2021 Dec 30.

Testing the Mate Preference Priority Model with the Profile-Based Experimental Paradigm: A Replication and Extension.

Jose C Yong, Yi Wen Tan, Norman P Li, Andrea L Meltzer.

OBJECTIVE: Although the mate preference priority model (MPPM; Li et al., 2002) has advanced our understanding of mate preferences, tests of the MPPM have relied on methods using text labels and thus lack ecological validity. We address this gap by testing the MPPM using Townsend and colleagues' (1990a; 1990b; 1993) profile-based experimental paradigm, which utilizes profiles comprising photos of pre-rated models to manipulate physical attractiveness as well as costumes and descriptions to manipulate social status.
METHOD: Using Singaporean samples, we conducted two studies (Study 1 n = 431, Study 2 n = 964) where participants judged the short-term and long-term mating desirability of opposite-sex profiles varying systematically on physical attractiveness and social status. We also tested whether treating these attributes as ordinal or continuous variables would be more valid.
RESULTS: Results showed broad support for evolutionary predictions of mate preferences and priorities while revealing an increased premium placed on social status in our sample. We also found that continuous operationalizations produced less inflated results.
CONCLUSIONS: The current research provides the first non-label, profile-based test of the MPPM, a well-powered replication of the profile-based paradigm, and an opportunity to observe the robustness and variations of mate preferences in a non-Western culture.

Keywords: culture; mate preference priority model; mate preferences; replication; sex differences

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12699

Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2021 Dec 29. 1461672211061942

Interested and Instrumental: An Examination of Instrumentality Regulation With Potential Romantic Partners.

Kylie R Chandler, Kori L Krueger, Amanda L Forest, Edward Orehek.

Instrumentality-the extent to which one facilitates another person's goal progress-has been described as the Rosetta Stone of attraction, and promotes closeness in ongoing relationships. Yet prior work has not examined whether people might regulate their instrumentality in contexts in which they desire (vs. do not desire) attraction or closeness with others. Four studies, employing imagined online scenario and in-lab experimental paradigms, examined whether people strive to be more instrumental to potential romantic partners (targets) under conditions that lead them to be more (vs. less) romantically interested in those targets. Single participants were more romantically interested in romantically available versus unavailable targets, which in turn, was associated with greater willingness to be instrumental. Results for romantically involved participants were less consistent. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Keywords: attraction; close relationships; goal pursuit; instrumentality; romantic interest

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672211061942

Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2021 Dec 29. 1461672211064452

Physical Attractiveness Biases Judgments Pertaining to the Moral Domain of Purity.

Christoph Klebl, Joshua J Rhee, Katharine H Greenaway, Yin Luo, Brock Bastian.

Research on the Beauty-is-Good stereotype shows that unattractive people are perceived to have worse moral character than attractive individuals. Yet research has not explored what kinds of moral character judgments are particularly biased by attractiveness. In this work, we tested whether attractiveness particularly biases moral character judgments pertaining to the moral domain of purity, beyond a more general halo effect. Across four preregistered studies (N = 1,778), we found that unattractive (vs. attractive) individuals were judged to be more likely to engage in purity violations compared with harm violations and that this was not due to differences in perceived moral wrongness, weirdness, or sociality between purity and harm violations. The findings shed light on how physical attractiveness influences moral character attributions, suggesting that physical attractiveness particularly biases character judgments pertaining to the moral domain of purity.

Keywords: Beauty-is-Good stereotype; attractiveness; disease avoidance; moral character; purity

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672211064452

Front Psychol. 2021 ;12 784099

How Facial Attractiveness Affects Time Perception: Increased Arousal Results in Temporal Dilation of Attractive Faces.

Sihong Zhou, Lingjing Li, Fuyun Wang, Yu Tian.

Time perception plays a fundamental role in people's daily life activities, and it is modulated by changes in environmental contexts. Recent studies have observed that attractive faces generally result in temporal dilation and have proposed increased arousal to account for such dilation. However, there is no direct empirical result to evidence such an account. The aim of the current study, therefore, was to clarify the relationship between arousal and the temporal dilation effect of facial attractiveness by introducing a rating of arousal to test the effect of arousal on temporal dilation (Experiment 1) and by regulating arousal via automatic expression suppression to explore the association between arousal and temporal dilation (Experiment 2). As a result, Experiment 1 found that increased arousal mediated the temporal dilation effect of attractive faces; Experiment 2 showed that the downregulation of arousal attenuated the temporal dilation of attractive faces. These results highlighted the role of increased arousal, which is a dominating mechanism of the temporal dilation effect of attractive faces.

Keywords: arousal; automatic suppression; facial attractiveness; mediation analysis; time perception

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.784099