The mean mating speed of each male hemiclone line (based on mating speed obtained with each of the other 11 female hemiclone lines) was used to calculate male attractiveness (with longer times to mate indicating "less attractive" males ([ 45]).
Attractiveness ratings were made using a 1 (much less attractive than average) to 7 (much more attractive than average) scale.
The photographs with the positive personality descriptions received the highest ratings for facial attractiveness, while the group with negative descriptions was ranked as less attractive than both the negative and the control group.
If size contrast occurs in the judgement of female BMI, then a woman could reduce her perceived BMI, and therefore increase her judged attractiveness, merely by positioning herself in close proximity to higher BMI, less attractive women.
An interesting study by Cowan and Little, which looked at humour and attractiveness found that physically attractive people were deemed to be "funnier" than less attractive people when the subjects could see the speaker.
Workers who were judged more attractive than average earned a five per cent premium over those of average attractiveness, who in turn earned about ten per cent more than those who were judged less attractive than average.
So the argument that social partners varied less in attractiveness than extra-pair males cannot explain why the attractiveness of extra-pair males to other females affected the occurrence of extra-pair copulations, while the mean attractiveness of the social partner did not.
On the other hand, the attractiveness easily dissipated: if a spider was switched from the blood diet to something else, or was denied food entirely for a time, it quickly became less attractive to the opposite sex.
To the extent that facial attractiveness summons attention (Shimojo, Simion, Shimojo, & Scheier, 2003; Sui & Liu, 2009) and increases dwell time (Leder, Tinio, Fuchs, & Bohrn, 2010), a less attractive mask should receive less scrutiny.
For the attractiveness manipulation, a t-test revealed that boys rated, on average, the attractive person as more attractive (M = 4.17, SD = 1.67) than the less attractive person (M = 2.19, SD = 1.67), t 903) = 18.11, ηp2 = .26, p < .001.001
