Options change the appeal of familiar and novel faces: gender differences and similarities

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106937

Explanation

Online dating is now an accepted option for how people meet.

Online dating provides access to a wide pool of people and the ability to find a great partner, but the choices can induce an "evaluative mindset" and be directed towards the "best" partner, undermining the willingness to commit to and continue with someone.

This study investigated judgments based on "facial attractiveness" as one of the key factors in online dating.

Participants selected a photo from a slideshow and activated an imagined context.

i) Faces in the second display

ii) Attraction to novel and familiar identities

We investigated our hypothesis by observing the impact of these

The results showed that, compared to single men, single women were not attracted to the same faces on the second viewing. This reason was observed only after they imagined that the slideshow did not "match" the romantic date.

If no such selection slideshow was prepared, these results were not observed, and these effects were not mitigated by the content of the slideshow or the size of the selection set. Following the slideshow, the new face was more attractive than the familiar face, and this effect was stronger for men than for women, and for both sexes overall, after imagining a "match" with the desired romantic date.

The findings suggest that "familiarity" is not necessarily a "breed preference" when it comes to our autonomy of choice.

This result reveals that there is a lower-order social cognitive mechanism at play in online interactions.