Steigerung der körperlichen Attraktivität durch nichtkörperliche Merkmale

Eine interessante Studie dazu, wie sich nichtkörperliche Merkmale auf die wahrgenommene körperliche Attraktivität auswirkt:

From an evolutionary perspective, beauty is regarded as an assessment of fitness value. The fitness value of a social partner can be influenced by both physical and nonphysical traits. It follows that the perceived beauty of a social partner can be influenced by nonphysical traits such as liking, respect, familiarity, and contribution to shared goals in addition to physical traits such as youth, waist-to-hip ratio, and bilateral symmetry. We present three studies involving the evaluation of known social partners showing that judgments of physical attractiveness are strongly influenced by nonphysical factors. Females are more strongly influenced by nonphysical factors than males and there are large individual differences within each sex. In general, research on physical attractiveness based on the evaluation of purely physical traits of strangers might miss some of the most important factors influencing the perception of physical attractiveness among known associates

Quelle: The effect of nonphysical traits on the perception of physical attractiveness Three naturalistic studies

Aus der Besprechung innerhalb der Studie:

Our studies were designed to address two shortcomings in the literature on physical attractiveness: (1) a relative paucity of studies that examine the effects of both nonphysical and physical factors on the assessment of physical attractiveness and (2) a relative paucity of studies that involve people who actually know each other. All three studies demonstrate that nonphysical factors have a very potent effect on the perception of physical attractiveness, which can persist for decades in the case of the middle-aged participants of our yearbook study. It is important to stress that physical attractiveness can be important outside the context of sexual relationships. Just as we regard fitness-enhancing features of landscapes as beautiful and are drawn to them for nonsexual reasons, we can regard people as beautiful and be drawn to them when they enhance our fitness for nonsexual reasons. Physical traits per se are especially important in sexual relationships because they will be partially inherited by one’s offspring. Thus, it makes sense that males are more influenced by physical features when evaluating females than when evaluating males, although the comparable asymmetry did not exist for females. Our studies also reveal individual differences within each sex that rival between-sex differences and that merit further study. In particular, individual differences are increasingly being studied in game theoretic terms as alternative social strategies, such as cooperation versus exploitation (Wilson, Near, & Miller, 1996, 1998) or high-investment versus lowinvestment mating strategies (Gangestad & Simpson, 2000). In future research it will be interesting to see if people who differ in these respects also differ in the factors that influence their perceptions of physical attractiveness. For example, are women from father-absent homes, who appear to adopt a reproductive strategy based on low male investment (Draper & Harpending, 1982, Ellis, McFadyen-Ketchum, Dodge, Pettit & Bates, 1999), more influenced by purely physical traits in males than those from father-present homes? In conclusion, thinking of beauty as an assessment of fitness value leads to the prediction that nonphysical factors should have a strong effect on the perception of physical attractiveness. In addition, naturalistic studies are needed to fully understand how physical and nonphysical factors are integrated in the perception of physical attractiveness. If we were to state our results in the form of a beauty tip, it would be, ‘‘If you want to enhance your physical attractiveness, become a valuable social partner.

Es ist aus meiner Sicht nicht verwunderlich, dass die Wahrnehmung eines Menschen als attraktiv auch durch sein Verhalten und seine gesellschaftliche Stellung bestimmt werden kann. Attraktivität ist nur ein Gefühl, dass den Sinn hat einen interessanten Partner anzuzeigen, mit dem man Sex haben sollte. Eine Verknüpfung aller vorhandenen Signale und deren Zusammenfassung in dem etwas unbestimmten Begriff Attraktivität ist insofern ein einfacher Weg genau dies umzusetzen. Evolution arbeitet häufig so, dass bereits vorhandenes genutzt wird und anderweitig ausgebaut wird. Beispielsweise ist wohl das Ekelgefühl, dass uns davor bewahrte verdorbene Speisen zu essen oder schmutziges zu meiden auch auf unmoralisches Verhalten bezogen worden, weswegen wir auch dreckigere Menschen eher für unmoralisch halten.

Gerade bei Frauen würde die Verwertung von Signalen für hohen sozialen Status und eine hohe Position in der Gruppe sich anbieten, da sie das Endergebnis eines Konkurrenzkampfes unter den Männern darstellen und damit das Endergebnis intrasexueller Selektion aber eben auch intersexueller Selektion darauf, dass die Männer einen hohen Status diese Art erreichen.