[Wild Fragaria]

Something about girls and boys to start the new year   And I think you probably should stay away from Brad Pitt

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/01/17/human.attraction.reut/index.html

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but other people's opinions matter too when it comes to the attraction between men and women, according to researchers.

They found women are more attracted to a man if other women like him too.

"We tend to think about things like attraction as reflecting a private decision or a personal choice but our work shows that people's attractiveness judgments can be influenced in pronounced ways by what other people appear to think of those individuals," said psychologist Dr. Ben Jones.

Jones, of the University of Aberdeen, and his team tested the impact of the opinions of others by giving women a test in which they had to choose the more attractive of pairs of male faces and to rate how much more handsome they found them.

They were then shown a short video in which the same faces were displayed. But each face was being looked at by a woman smiling or one showing a bored or neutral expression.

After watching the video, the researchers repeated the initial test.

"We found that the slide show caused women to become more attracted to the men who were being smiled at by other women," said Jones.

The test had the opposite effect on men however, possibly because of the competition factor amongst males.

When men were asked to look at the same male faces, those who got the approving female glances became less appealing.

"This shows that people are using cues to the attitudes of others towards individuals to shape their own attractiveness judgments of those individuals," Jones told Reuters.

The findings, which are reported in The Proceedings of The Royal Society B journal, are similar to mate-choice copying seen in other species and are thought to be the first time it has been shown in humans.

Positive female interest in the faces increased the women's preference for the males but it had the opposite effect on male judgments.

Jones suggests the positive reaction conveys a sense of approval for women but the negative male reaction could reflect jealousy or competition.

"If I go to a bar with Brad Pitt, for example, chances are I'm not going to get much interest from the women because Pitt will hog all the attention," he said.

[Taristin]

Scarily true...

[Wild Fragaria]

What have you experienced?

[Taristin]

That Im less attracted to people who have people flirting and hitting on them....

[aldo_14]

University of Aberdeen?  I'm surprised they weren't studying sheep......

It's not really surprising; sexual selection dictates that men compete for female approval, so it's natural that we'd (well,  men) be built to look negatively upon competition.  On the other hand, females excercise mate choice, so they'll judge the best male through things such as a 'social' standing; it's also perhaps linked to the mildly polygamous nature of humanity (males with some - not many - female mates, as evidenced by sexual dimorphism).

(EDIT; I'd suspect the mechanics of attraction are deep wired enough not to be affected, but I can't help but wonder if they did a similar experiment with homosexual attraction)

[Wild Fragaria]

Wow, we are getting more 'scientific' here

[IPAndrews]

Maybe the women in the pictures are smiling because the man in the picture is more attractive?  Baaaaaad science.

[Unknown Target]

Er, duuuhhh. Ugly women get less action not just because guys find them unattractive, but because said guys don't want to be found doing anything with said ugly women, lest their friends see them.

[Wild Fragaria]

What's wrong with ugly women?  Some of them might actually have some inner beauty -- sweet, caring and understanding

[Windrunner]

In other words we are one step closer to understand how women think

[Wild Fragaria]

Are you trying to get closer to your woman, Windy? 

[Windrunner]

Are you trying to get closer to your woman, Windy? 

I don't need to get close, she is allready mine

[Wild Fragaria]

Are you trying to get closer to your woman, Windy? 

I don't need to get close, she is allready mine

Aw...  That's very sweet.  Congrats

By the way I found the same article on theherald

http://theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1127014.0.0.php

[Flipside]

Maybe if they spent less time in the lab and more time in the pub, they wouldn't have taken quite so long to figure this out....

[Unknown Target]

Seriously. Science to rescue us from the obvious once again.

[Ford Prefect]

Just because it seems obvious doesn't mean it is.

[Mars]

Well... can't say it's a surprise... but there's humanity for you.

Er, duuuhhh. Ugly women get less action not just because guys find them unattractive, but because said guys don't want to be found doing anything with said ugly women, lest their friends see them.

Speaking as someone who doesn't really directly care about looks... welcome to my life.

[Wobble73]

Actually, I've found that the less attractive the lady, the more action she see's! They tend to be less obsessed about they way they look and easier going. Therefore they tend to be more confident in themselves and conversely more attractive! I am actually talking about the larger lady here. They tend to be more outgoing and morefun to be around and therefore have more success when it comes to it! Whether that turns into long lasting relationships I'm not too sure.

[Unknown Target]

I have nothing against large women (in fact, I find them just as fun as their thinner counterparts ). I'm just saying that if a guy dates a woman who most men consider to be unattractive, then he'll get teased for it - it's not like it's rocket science (although apparently these scientists have made it out to be).

[Wobble73]

I have nothing against large women (in fact, I find them just as fun as their thinner counterparts ). I'm just saying that if a guy dates a woman who most men consider to be unattractive, then he'll get teased for it - it's not like it's rocket science (although apparently these scientists have made it out to be).

And what I'm saying is the guy who lets the teasing get in the way of a good relationship has a problem with his own self esteem. The best relationship can be with the most unlikely partner, and the person who lets others opinion get in the way deserves to be alone. What I'm basically saying is don'tl let your friends choose you life for you. After all it's your life!