As you may all can tell I am a fan of multimedia, and am especially a sucker for any of those Discovery channel or National Geographic documentaries. I first watched this documentary with my roommate sophomore year and it has stuck with me since. However, now it is actually relevant. This documentary is titled the Science of Sex Appeal. I thought it was appropriate as having just read Monkeyluv (the chapter). It covers the idea that we are attracted to symmetry and the cross-cultural beliefs on beauty. There is this one section though, covering a study of the basis of attraction based on one’s view of their own level of attractiveness. In the study they took away any of the participant’s “distracting” characteristics (i.e. covering their hair and dressing in the same clothes). Each participant was given a number unbeknownst to them and was asked to get the highest number possible of the opposite sex. Many numbers paired off with or within one number of their own. Then, the participants were asked to take off the hair cap and try to match up with the man or woman they found the sexiest. Before the study the men and women were asked to rate the attractiveness of the participants opposite sex. Interestingly, the pairs were again within one number of each other.
Another tidbit that we have touched on in class is the fact that women are found more attractive when they are closer to ovulating. One study in this documentary showed that women’s faces actually change as they get closer and closer to ovulation. Maybe that is why strippers make more money when they are ovulating?
I think all the parts of the documentary are on youtube but if you have a Netflix account its available to watch on your computer! It makes for a wonderful Thanksgiving break activity! Enjoy!
On Psychology and Neuroscience 
This is interesting because, not to give too much info. or anything, I’m really into skinny guys that most other people don’t find attractive, maybe it’s a reflection of my subconscious (or conscious really) ideas about how I stack up on the attractiveness meter.
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Hm, interesting. I wonder how this applies to friendship as well. A friend once told me that we generally pick friends with a similar level of attractiveness. I never really wanted to believe it, but when you look at groups of friends, it often appears to be true. I would agree that all my friends are similar to me in some way. It’s weird but true that my closets friends have always been around the same height as me. I think it’s just more natural to be around someone that doesn’t make you feel like you stand out too much, in whatever way that may be.
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That would be closest friends, I really don’t have any closet friends, I swear… or maybe that’s where I keep the ones that don’t look like me 🙂
P.S. Sam that’s Marci’s theory. People are always asking if we are twins or sisters. I don’t see it, I think it’s just because we are the same age/height.
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When I was reading your first comment Lauren, that’s exactly who I thought of…when I first met Marci and found out you were two were friends I thought you two looked so much alike! I think it’s because both of you have similar coloring.
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How’s this for a sweet article title: “What is beautiful is good because what is beautiful is desired: physical attractiveness stereotyping as projection of interpersonal goals.”
So it seems that women do project their inner goals of beauty onto their interactions with others. But what about women who want their friends to be ugly so that they seem more attractive? Is there a spectrum of women in this regard, and does this type of woman actually exist?
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