The effect of exposure to attractive and unattractive faces to self perceived mate value and one's partner's mate value

Antolčić , Tea. (2013). The effect of exposure to attractive and unattractive faces to self perceived mate value and one's partner's mate value. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Psychology. [mentor Hromatko, Ivana].

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of exposure to faces of different attractiveness on self perceived mate value and one's partner's mate value with the hypothesis of achieving the contrast effect. The data was collected on 563 participants (147 male and 416 female) who were all in committed relationships. To measure one's mate value, we used the Mate Value Inventory (MVI-7)(Kirsner, Figueredo i Jacobs, 2003) which participants took twice with a week interval. In the first part, they assessed their own mate value, as well as their partner's value but in the second part they were divided randomly in one of four different situations due to pictures they were looking at – attractive male faces, unattractive male faces, attractive female faces and unattractive female faces. After the exposure to faces, they assessed once again their own mate value and their partner's mate value. ANOVA showed that participants generally assess their partners higher than themselves but no contrast effect was found. There was no difference in either self perceived nor partner's mate value in three situations. After viewing unattractive female faces, participants gave lower assessments to their partners with the interaction of sex – the difference between self assessment and assessment of their partner signifficantly reduced in women.

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