Photo courtesy of photopin.com
If you have been following the posts on Mind the Science Gap this week, I’d imagine that you are beaming with excitement considering that the special day of flowers, chocolate, mating, dating, and kisses is finally here – Happy Valentine’s Day!
For those of you that are currently hitched (and have graciously withdrawn yourselves from the world of dating) feel free to read along and reminisce, but for those of you that are single and on the pursuit for a date to invite to dinner this evening, it may be time to review your “game” (well-practiced enticement techniques). Many of us may believe that one of the most timeless ways to initiate a conversation with a prospective date is to lock eyes and flash them a confident pearly white smile, but studies have shown that depending on your gender, this could be the last thing that you want to do – how shocking!
Collage adapted from photopin.com
Emotions have the ability to reflect both our transient emotional status as well as the characteristics of our stable personality. Considering that we portray a wide range of emotions on a daily basis it is no surprise that men and women have developed (perhaps, evolutionarily) an attraction to specific emotions in the opposite sex. A study by Tracy and Beall (2011) in Emotion examined both men’s and women’s sexual attraction to emotions expressed by the opposite sex.
By asking men and women to rate the attractiveness of pictures representing different emotions (happiness, pride, shame, neutral) of the opposite sex, the study established that while men are most attracted to happiness expressed by women, women are least attracted to happiness and most attracted to pride expressed by men. What makes one emotion more attractive than another and why are there differences between sexes, you may ask?
Let’s take a closer look and see what it is about these emotions that turns us on and turns us off!
What emotions are men attracted to in women?
1. Happiness
The number one emotion that men are attracted to in women is happiness – a simple smile. Overall, happiness is thought to be one of the most feminine expressions of emotion because it is presented on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum (in the case of this study) from pride. Someone who expresses their happiness through smiling is thought to be a more friendly, approachable and receptive person. From an evolutionary perspective, people who exhibit more pride tend to be higher up on the social/power scale and therefore less receptive to relationships and mating. Research suggests that men typically place importance upon the health, youth and receptivity to sexual interaction of women. Therefore, it could be inferred that men are more attracted to happiness because it is classically representative of a female mate who demonstrates all of these desirable characteristics.
2. Pride
As discussed above, the study suggests that pride is a lesser desired emotion by men because it represents a higher power status and consequently a lack of friendliness, approachability and receptivity. This interpretation of emotional expression could have evolved from the idea that men sought out women who were equipped to bare children and provide emotional support to their families, rather than those who were focused upon serving as the primary providers for a family – roles typically filled by a male.
3. Shame
While the expression of shame has a greater consequence in men than in women, its expression reduces the overall sexual appeal of women. In the context of this study, the expression of shame is interpreted to be representative of a person defined by low hierarchal status and obedience. When looking back into the depths of time, one could imagine how it may have been been favorable for women to be submissive and of low social hierarchy because these characteristics would boost a man’s sense of dominance and pride, but in the current study shame does not present any significant positive outcomes upon sexual attractiveness.
What emotions do women prefer to see expressed by men?
1. Pride
Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) pride is the number one male emotion that instigates sexual attraction from females. Across cultures, pride is typically associated with high status and dominance. Typically pride is associated with masculinity and attractiveness and is manifest in body language through an expanded chest, distinguishable upper body strength, and an overall large figure. From a females’ perspective, pride as exemplified through emotions, signifies the presence of qualities that would make for a good provider of a family.
2. Shame
Shame is an interesting emotion when expressed by males, because based on the age of the female, it can serve as a stimulator or inhibitor for sexual attraction, irrespective of its low mate value. In general, shame is thought to be more of a feminine characteristic due to the fact that it represents the role of submission, which is more frequently evolutionarily associated with women. When expressed by males, shame is representative of trustworthiness and group commitment. By nature of breaking them, shame reflects an understanding of social laws and a commitment to becoming a better member of society.
Interestingly, shame expressed by men appears to be more attractive to specifically younger (college-aged) women. This age specific attraction could be explained by the fact that the sexual preferences of younger women are more aligned with evolutionary mating preferences since they are more proximate to the act of reproduction than older women. Whether women realize it or not, the study demonstrates that a male’s expression of shame can tug on a female heart string or two.
3. Happiness
Finally, the most consistently rejected emotion as expressed by men is happiness (how sad!). How does this make sense? As discussed earlier, happiness is the most attractive emotion when expressed by females because of its femininity and lack of dominance. Since women prefer expressions that confer dominance, it makes sense for them to reject an emotional expression that lacks dominance.
As a single male looking to land a date on Valentine’s Day, are you telling me that in order to be successful I shouldn’t express happiness?
Of course not! Considering that the data collected from this study was solely based upon participant’s attractiveness ratings of pictures, more studies need to be done that incorporate interpresonal interactions and the influence of social situations upon the gender specific attraction to emotional expression. Quite obviously we do not only formulate opinions of people based upon our interpretations of pictures, but given the growing presence of social media (Facebook, dating websites), more and more frequenly our pictures do, in fact, generate first impressions. Therefore, this information could help explain why specific people are attracted to others based upon these pictorial first impressions.
- So, men, unless you are committed to throwing all conversation to the wind and solely relying upon your emotional expression as a means for asking a lady out for dinner, I wouldn’t be too worried about letting a smile slip here or there.
- Women, if you could possibly need any more of a reason to bare those teeth and laugh like there’s no tomorrow, you now have scientific research behind your back. Smile and laugh away, because not only will you enjoy your evening, but also men won’t be able to take their eyes off of you.
The purpose of our lives it to be happy. – Dali Lama
Male and female successfully smiling together. photo courtesy of photopin.com
Source:
Tracy J, Beall A. (2011). Happy guys finish last: The impact of emotion expressions on sexual attraction. Emotion. 11, 1379-1387.
Tagged as:
Emotions,
happiness,
Men,
Pride,
Relationship,
Shame,
Smile,
Women
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I have to say, I’m skeptical of studies that ask its pool of participants to rate attraction based on nothing more than looking at photos of strangers. Viewing photos and having daily interactions with actual people are vastly different types of interfacing. I would imagine that photo viewing might tell us more about how we’re conditioned by visual advertising to value certain poses or facial expressions and assign gender to them.
Karen, thank you for your comment. That is a great point and something that I briefly touched upon towards the end of my post. I know that there is (way) more to people than simply their external appearance and that more studies need to be conducted incorporating how emotions are interpreted with an array of other variables being taken into consideration (mode of communication, personality, communiation skills, matching of interests).
That being said, I do think that is interesting to examine the effect that pictures ( when removed from the unlimited number of societal and interperonal influences) have upon our interpretations of emotion. I agree that this could be speaking more to how media and visual advertising have trained our interpretations of pictorial expressions of emotions, but in our age of technology, where social media and online dating are popular modes for “meeting people,” it is intersting to investigate the types of first impressions you can make through a picture.
Thank you again for your comment!
I’m disappointed by the heterosexist nature of this post, which implies women only seek men and men only seek women as romantic partners. Yes, your hands are somewhat tied by how the research was done and what was published in the article, but I would like to see a mention of that limitation at the very least.
“Considering that we portray a wide range of emotions on a daily basis it is no surprise that men and women have developed (perhaps, evolutionarily) an attraction to specific emotions in the opposite sex. A study by Tracy and Beall (2011) in Emotion examined both men’s and women’s sexual attraction to emotions expressed by the opposite sex.”
The blog makes it very clear that the study is premised upon attraction to emotions in the opposite sex, there is no “implication” of any hetreosexist predisposition, and thus no clarification necessary.
Thank you for your comment, Laura. You are correct in the fact that I chose to focus upon the interpretation of this one study, and therefore my interpretations are limited by the population that the study chose to address – a heterosexual population. The “materials and methods” section of Tracy and Beall (2011) states,
“Given our interest in studying the effects of emotion
expressions on sexual attraction, all participants viewed and provided
judgments for an opposite sex target only, and nonheterosexual
participants (i.e., those who rated themselves 3 or aboveon a
1–7 scale, where 1 = exclusively heterosexual, 4 = bisexual, and
7 = exclusively homosexual) were removed from analyses.”
This study chose to exclude participants who defined themselves as “bisexual” and “exclusively homosexual” as a method of control for their population of interest. I do believe, though, as pointed out by Karen, that the findings of this study could serve as a stepping stone towards interpretations beyond the sexual attraction of emotions, in a way that is suggestive of how we have evolved (through social media influence and advertisements) to interpret pictorial representations of emotion as a society.
Well, I can now see why the teeth whitening industry is such big business. I should go and buy stock in Crest and Colgate today! I feel that the emotions described in the post are potential precursors as to whether an initial meeting may become more substantive. I interpret the examples of the emotions that each finds attractive as being representative of thinking inward (about ourselves) or thinking outward (about others). The post is written using gender specific examples, but I feel that the underlying principles may apply to any relationship.
Thanks for this interesting article, even though I am way beyond the age of trying to be attracted by or attractive to another. As I refect on my early years of dating, I can affirm that there is certainly validity to your assertions. Perhaps, ” You must remember this,a kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is still a sigh. The fundamental things in life …as time goes by.” Hap[py Valentine’s Day to all .
“Pride goeth before a fall”. Great! The label of pride as an indicator of maleness should be a turn off. Armed with these statistics the gender gap should surely diminish. I can hear the glass breaking now.
Your interpretation of your sources was intriguing. Perhaps my fatigue contributed to my need to reread some paragraphs for clarification.
Thank you for the comment, Virginia. I hope that reading through the post didn’t tire you out! If there were any specific phrases that stuck out to you as confusing that you would like to share or comment upon, I would appreciate you pointing them out so that I can learn to make my writing style as user friendly as possible!