Can you find me a free online scientific reference(s), such an
article, stating that physical appearance is almost everything in
making people attractive to each other?

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Clarification of Question by hassan30-ga on 03 May 2006 08:37 PDT

If a free reference is not available, it's OK, but not so expensive.

Hello hassan30-ga,

You asked a very interesting question ? one that has been studied,
researched, and argued about since time immemorial. You did not
specify what kind of situations or relationships you were thinking
about so I?ve collected some information for you on the importance of
physical appearance for interpersonal attraction in general and sexual
attraction in particular.

This is a huge subject and I found that there are lots of resources
that indicate that physical appearance is very important in making
people attractive to each other. Some of the research will show it?s
the most important factor while others will claim other factors come
first. It seems that most of them demonstrate that situational factors
greatly influence the importance of physical appearance in human
attraction.

I?ve collected a variety of resources to help you continue your
explorations of this very interesting subject.

Enjoy!

~ czh ~


http://clearinghouse.missouriwestern.edu/manuscripts/195.asp
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: THE EFFECT OF ATTRACTIVENESS AND PERSONALITY ON
PURSUING DATING RELATIONSHIPS AND FRIENDSHIPS

It was hypothesized that men and women would prefer attractiveness in
a dating relationship, men would prefer attractiveness in a
friendship, and women would prefer personality in a friendship. The
results yielded partial support for the hypotheses that men and women
would prefer attractiveness to personality in a dating relationship,
and men would prefer attractiveness in a friendship whereas women
would prefer personality.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060213_attraction_rules.html
The Rules of Attraction in the Game of Love

But a short list of scientific rules for the game of love is emerging.
Some are as clearly defined as the prominent, feminine eyes of a
supermodel or the desirable hips of a well-built man. Other rules work
at the subconscious level, motivating us to action for evolutionary
reasons that are tucked inside clouds of infatuation.

(This website also provides lots of related articles that help you
explore many facets of physical attraction.)

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.livescience.com/othernews/051221_symmetry_nature.html
Symmetry in Nature: Fundamental Fact or Human Bias?

Experiments have found that women are more attracted to men who have
features that are more symmetrical than other men. One study even
found that women have more orgasms during sex with men who were more
symmetrical, regardless of their level of romantic attachment or the
guys' sexual experience.

The connection between body symmetry and mate selection began to make
sense when researchers started finding correlations between symmetry
and health. One study found that men with asymmetric faces tend to
suffer more from depression, anxiety, headaches and even stomach
problems. Women with facial asymmetry are less healthy and more prone
to emotional instability and depression.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Sexual_attraction
Sexual attraction

(This is a long article with lots of additional links to help you
explore the importance of physical attractiveness in human sexual
attraction.)

-------------------------------------------------


http://digilander.libero.it/linguaggiodelcorpo/biblio/
Virtual Library on Nonverbal Behavior

http://digilander.libero.it/linguaggiodelcorpo/beauty/
Attractiveness

(This is an Italian site but most of the resources offered are in
English. There are several categories to explore regarding every
element of physical attraction.)

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.jamescmccroskey.com/publications/57.htm
THE MEASUREMENT OF INTERPERSONAL ATTRACTION

DISCUSSION 
The most important and obvious conclusion from this study is that
interpersonal attraction does appear to be a multidimensional
construct. Further, the scales presented here appear to tap three
dimensions of interpersonal attraction--a social or personal liking
property; a physical dimension based on dress and physical features;
and a task-orientation dimension related to how easy or worthwhile
working with someone would be.

On the basis of the results obtained in this investigation we offer an
instrument composed of the 15 items reported in Table 3 for
consideration by future researchers concerned with interpersonal
attraction. Our data suggest that this instrument is capable of
reliably measuring physical, social, and task attraction.

-------------------------------------------------


http://www.findarticles.com/p/search?tb=art&qt=Sexual+attraction+%2F+Research
Results for "Sexual attraction / Research?

http://www.findarticles.com/p/search?tb=art&qt=Interpersonal+attraction+%2F+Researc
Results for "Interpersonal attraction / Research"

http://www.findarticles.com/p/search?qt=physical+attraction+%2F+Research&tb=art&qta=1&qf=free&x=12&y=6
Results for "physical attraction / Research"

(These sites offer you hundreds of articles to help you explore all
facets human attraction.)

-------------------------------------------------


http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=physical%20attraction%20research&num=100&hl=en&lr=&oi=scholart
Google Scholar Search Results

(These results will provide you with references to books, scholarly
papers, articles and scientific research that will help you delve
deeper into this subject.)


===============
SEARCH STRATEGY
===============
physical attraction research
physical OR interpersonal OR sexual attraction research

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Clarification of Answer by czh-ga on 18 May 2006 23:58 PDT

Dear hassan30-ga,

I'm sorry that you were unhappy with the information I presented. As
you say, "I really have not got what I wanted because there does not
seem to be a scientific study which suggests that physical appearance
is almost the only factor that affects in making people get into
relationships."

It's difficult for a researcher to take a chance on presenting
negative information when the customer believes that something
"should" exist. Unfortunately, your rating is applied to my research
skills even though you said, "I thing the problem was not from the
researcher for not finding such a
study."

In the future I hope you will ask for clarification if you believe
there is additional information to be found but not penalize your
researcher if the answer is that "that's all there is."

Wishing you well.

~ czh ~

I really have not got what I wanted because there does not seem to be
a scientific study which suggests that physical appearance is almost
the only factor that affects in making people get into relationships.
I thing the problem was not from the researcher for not finding such a
study.

HI,
Since physical appearance is subjective, I doubt that there is or can
be a scientific article on the subject, maybe sociological ones.

Physical appearance is subjective:  we grow up in a certain society
and learn its definition what is considered to be attractive, and also
learn to relate other types of physical appearance to identify persons
of different "races" whom we consider not to be members of "our"
society:  e.g., negroid or oriental facial features if we are
Europeans, and we often tend to find these features unattractive, but
members of those societies do not, indeed, they may find European
facial features to be unattractive  - the Chinese expression "long
noses" for Europeans, for example.

Looking below the neck, attractiveness is also subjective and is also
subject to fads and trends.  Apparently exposure to men's magazines
full of pictures of females with large breasts has led to an emphasis
that such figures are the attractive norm  - both for men and for
women, resulting in the latter wanting to do something about it.

Muscleman figures for men are a similar trend.  

Pictures and sculptures from different societies and different periods
can be assumed to represent those societies ideals of physical
appearance, and they vary considerably, both between societies and
between different periods within a single society.

I hope this is of some help, although it does not answer your request
for a scientific reference.

This is a free comment.
Regards, Myoarin

Hi czh-ga,

Thank you very much for the amazing result. As I?ve gone through some
of them and notice that some are not scientific article (No. 2 & 3
which are from), but written by journalists, and some don?t seem to be
published in a scientific journal (Section 1, 5 & 6), although they
are written by researchers. I?ve got an article from section 7 which
is published in Sex Roles journal.

Anyway thank you again for help.

Hi Myoarin,

Thank you for your comment. I agree with you that attraction is
subjective. However the question is still there. Is this subjective
state, when it happens, what makes two people be in a relationship,
and when it does not happen the relationship does not come into
existence or not?

Dear Hassan,
I hope my comment didn't lead you to question Czh's answer.  The
moment I read the first line mentioning symmetry, I thought:  "Oh yeah
(stronger word), of course, I have read about that; I should have kept
my mouth closed!"
Although I still think that there is some validity in my comment,
symmetry is an objective quality and very possibly justified for
genetic reasons.  I know from personal experience that I have suddenly
recognized the attractiveness of a person with very symmetrical
features, regardless of the person's "race"  - admitting my own
conditioning on this.

It is a difficult subject; many may feel that it is politically
incorrect to discuss, because it does involve subjective personal
opinion and racial prejudice, so I don't think that science can go
beyond symmetry as a measure of attractive physical appearance.

Rereading your original question, I will admit that physical
appearance is only the start of being attracted to a person, being
attracted with our eyes before we get to know him or her, when
character and intelligence can then become stronger elements of
attraction  - thank goodness, for all us less symmetrical folks.

Great answer, Czh!

Myoarin