Attractiveness Ratings on Features of Hair Color and Eye Color Hunter College   

Abstract

People believe that eye color and hair color play a role in attractiveness. We investigate gender differences within attractiveness ratings, and whether similarities in features such as hair color and eye color between people can affect attraction. Participants (N = 50) from blonde hair blue eyes condition and brown hair brown eyes condition were administered the 5- point Likert scale. A series of independent sample t test conducted to analyze the variance of means for attractiveness ratings in models with similar eye color as subjects, models with similar hair color as subjects, and opposite-sex models with similar hair color as subjects, within brown-eyed, brown hair subjects and blue-eyed, blonde hair subjects. Analysis showed that subjects will rate opposite sex higher in attractiveness when having similar hair color.

Keywords: eye color, hair color, attractiveness, ratings, features, brown, blue, Likert   scale, models

Attractiveness Ratings on Features of Hair Color and Eye Color

We often want to know why we are attracted to our mates and what makes us want to be with them. Attraction is an action of showing interest to someone. Attraction is physical appearance such as facial appearance is a common intimate information you can obtain in social communication (Kim, 2015). Men and women have thoughts what they want in their partners, someone who is amicable, well balanced and clever (Botwin, Buss, & Shackelford, 1997). Men and women do not have similar thoughts on the traits they have for their mates or partners to what they had; they disagree on what they want in their partner oppositely. Men find physical attractiveness more important than anything else, for example their eyes. Women find good earning potential more important than physical attractiveness, for example hardworking (Eastwick & Finkel, 2008).               

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In the study, men with blue eyes would be more appealing to women with blue eyes as well  men with blue eyes will prefer women with the blue eye color as well; individuals with blue eyes, there will be a strong connection between the genotype and phenotype compare to brown-eyed individuals they don’t really connect with people of the same eye color.  If men were more likely to choose women with similar traits, then men with blue eyes would lean towards and feel a connection or attraction towards the women of the same eye color as their eyes. In order to get accurate results, they use images of women models and men models with both blue or brown eyes and were then evaluated how attract there were by women and men observers with opposite eye colors; either blue or brown eyes (Laeng, Ronny, Jan- Are, 2007). The eye color in the image of the models was then changed and show with their natural eye color (e.g., blue) or with another eye color (e.g., brown) (Laeng, Ronny, Jan- Are, 2007).               

Eyes was most importantly use to obtain information from outside the organism. Eyes has provided information about the present and future and conducts as an inner attitude. In comparison to the eyes of others, individual eyes comes unusual in both color and shape. Particularly, our eyes have very white sclera, the iris is what varies from different colors from dark brown to light blue. (Kobayashi & Kohshima, 1997, 2001; Tomasello, Hare, Lehmann, & Call, 2007). Eyes are special in a way which shows different biological meanings that can be attributed in different contexts (Kleisner, 2008a, 2008b). The color of the iris will remain the same when connecting to the dominance of the person.            

In the article, hair color and courtship, in one study, each female had to wear a different color wig such as blond, brown, black or red colored hair color. They would be sitting in a night club,  following being observed by men and women in the club (Gueguen, 2012). In another study, male who wore different wigs in color were asked by women in a nightclub for a dance. They asked participants both male and female to approach other men and female in the street and act like they want spare change. They would have to wear a black or blonde wig to disguise themselves. Wigs was consistent of different lengths (mid or what they had naturally) with different colors such as red, blonde. They would wear the exact clothes they had before and was not allowed to wear any makeup whatsoever. The wigs did not have any order as they were randomized during their time at the nightclub where they were observed.                   

In article Hitchhiking women’s hair color, five women participated in the experiment; female confederates wore different color of wigs; blonde, brown or black hair. They had to stand 

outside on the side of the road and act as they needed a ride somewhere. In this article, they found blonde hair had a higher rate of getting picked up by male drivers.  Men more than women value physical attractiveness to spouse or their lifelong partner. When men are attractive to someone, they see physical attractiveness as an importance to appearance in women they see (Gueguen and Lamy, 2009). It shows women’s hair influences male recognition and logic. Men were more attractive to women who had lighter color hair. It also shows men would see women with lighter hair color to be more attractive (Gueguen and Lamy, 2009).               

The phrase “opposite attract” is when an individual is attracted to some who has interchangeable traits compare to their own traits. In this study, people would evaluate their own characteristics and their favorite brand and then compare it to see if there was anything similar to others. According to psychology, they found people are more attracted to people who are differentiated by the traits they have to what their attracted partners have. A “courtship” type of relationship, for example, could achievable represent an attraction where the brand in question offers quite contrasting traits to a consumer’s own. Analogy refers to alignments where relationship partners’ personal features directly mirror each other (Montoya, Horton, & Kirchner, 2008).                    

Our aim is to understand if people are attracted to others who have similar eye color and/or hair color as them. It was hypothesized subjects will rate images of models higher in attractiveness when possessing similar eye color. Our second hypothesis is subjects will rate images of models higher in attractiveness when possessing similar hair color. Our third hypothesis is subjects will rate opposite sex higher in attractiveness when having similar hair color.

 Methods

Participants

Researchers obtained 50 participants in Hunter College Campus located in NYC. There were 16 men (32%) and 34 women (68), (age range is 19 to 30, M = 22.5, SD = 2.34). There were 40 people (80%) with brown eyes and 5 people (10%) with blue eyes, 4 people (8%) with green eye and 1 person (1%) with hazel eye. This experiment did not have any exclusion concerning the participants. The participants were not compensated while doing this survey.

Materials

  For this experiment, a few materials were used to run this experiment. A 20-item five-point Likert rating scale measuring attraction. An unpublished attractiveness scale was used which is a 20-item measure of attraction that categorizes ratings as either 1 (extremely unattractive) to 5 (extremely attractive). Items that were rated on the Attractiveness Scale were 20 images, 10 pairs of the same image, taken from the Google Image. The 10 original images (five images of female models and five images of male models) were obtained from Google Images and were each manipulated by using the “Perfect 365” software application. A 20-slide PowerPoint presentation on a computer was used to present the 20 images. A demographic survey (unpublished) was included which asked for age, gender, eye color, hair color, and sexual orientation.

Procedure                  

Participants were randomly selected and were randomly assigned to two different conditions. Condition A, where participants were shown ten pair images of women one with brown hair and brown eyes and women with blonde hair and blue eyes. Condition B where participants were shown ten pair images of men with brown hair and brown eyes and men with blue eyes and blonde hair. Participants were asked to complete the Likert’s scale to rate attractiveness between two different conditions. Participants were asked to rate attractiveness between two pairs of twenty images, where the scale is 1 (very unattractive) to 5 (very attractive). Participants were shown photos of low-profile models on a slideshow on a computer and were given 30 seconds to look at each image. For all images, images on the left were pictures of models who have brown hair and brown eyes and images on the right were pictures of models who have blonde hair and blue eyes. After seeing the images, participants were asked to fill out their demographics. Participants were thanked for being part of the experiment.

Results

   A sequence of independent samples t-tests were conducted to analyze the variance of means for attractiveness ratings in models with similar eye color as participants, models with similar hair color as subjects, and opposite-sex models with similar hair color as participants, within brown- eyed, brown hair participants and blue-eyed, blonde hair participants. There was no significant difference found in whether brown-eyed participants (M = 19.07, SD = 3.38) would evaluate brown-eyed models higher in attractiveness than blue-eyed participants (M = 20.40, SD = 1.94); t (43) = -.852, p = 0.399. In addition, there was no significant difference in whether brown-eyed participants (M = 13.60, SD = 2.96) would evaluate blue-eyed models higher in attractiveness than blue-eyed participants (M = 15.57, SD = 3.80); t (43) = 1.114, p = 0.272 (See Figure 1).       

There was no significant difference found in whether brown hair participants (M = 19.26, SD = 3.36) would evaluate brown hair models higher in attractiveness than blonde hair participants (M = 18.37, SD = 3.15); t (47) = .692, p = 0.492. In addition, there was no significant difference found in whether blonde hair participants (M = 13.62, SD = 2.55) would evaluate blonde hair models higher in attractiveness than brown hair participants (M = 15.75, SD = 3.74); t (47) = 1.534, p = 0.132.

There was no significant difference found in whether female participants (M = 19.52, SD = 3.45) would evaluate male models with similar hair color higher in attractiveness than male participants (M = 18.43, SD = 2.94); t (48) = -1.090, p = 0.281. In addition, there was no significant difference found in whether male participants (M = 15.87, SD = 3.94) would evaluate female models with similar hair color higher in attractiveness than female participants(M = 15.05, SD = 3.55); t (48) = .732, p = 0.468.

   Discussion

This study was conducted to examine if eye color and hair color plays a role in attractiveness and how others would evaluate low-profile models. It was hypothesized subjects will evaluate images of models higher in attractiveness when possessing similar eye color. The goal of this study was to determine whether people are more prone to evaluating models higher in attractiveness when possessing similar eye color and hair color. Our second hypothesis is subjects will evaluate opposite sex higher in attractiveness when having similar hair color. Lastly, we hypothesized subjects will evaluate opposite sex higher in attractiveness when having similar hair color.

Contrary to our hypothesize, our study found, there is no significant difference between evaluating images of models higher in attractiveness when possessing similar eye color. In the article by Laeng, images of females and males both with either blue or brown eyes were evaluated for their attractiveness by others either blue or brown eyes. The eye color in the images of all models was then manipulated so that models was presented with blue or with brown eye. (Laeng, Ronny, Jan- Are, 2007). Men with blue eyes,  participants were physically appealed to partners of the same eye color. They found that men with blue eyes will select women with the same eye color, blue eye (Laeng, Ronny, Jan- Are, 2007).

Contrary to our hypothesize, our study found, there is no significant difference between individual eye color and similar eye color evaluating in images of models. On the contrary, the article by Kleisner, they found statistically significant associated with eye color and regarding power in men; brown eyed men were more powerful. They found that other traits accountable for higher regarding power with males with brown eyes. It was also found that males corresponded with of brown eyes when they see it  and the features link with higher view of compliance in males with the blue eyes (Kleisner, 2010).

Contrary to our hypothesize, our study found, there is no significant difference between opposite sex and similar hair color. In the article by Guéguen, it was found that blond males were not found attractive to females. According to Ayton (2005), found that men believed blond haired women tend to be greater appealing than women who are black and red. Swami et al. (2008a) delineate that blond hair men and women were rated as less physically appealing than black hair. Women find men who had dark hair more appealing to them than men who had  blond hair (Feinman and Gill 1978). They found that men seem more appealing to women who had blond hair  compared to women who had other hair colors. They also found men with blond hair didn’t seem appealing than men with brown, black.

 Our study had a few limitations. One limitation is asking equal amount of men and women. One way to fix this would be to have a group of men and women of fours for each set of trials to keep track of the same amount men and women. Another limitation is people define attractiveness differently from others. One way to fix this limitation is to let one define how they would define attractiveness to themselves. A third limitation would be not having an equal number of participants with blue eyes and brown eyes. One way to fix this limitation is to gather both blue eyes and brown eyes participants equally to see if it would make a difference in the results. In the real world, individuals choose partners with different eye color and hair color. Also, not everyone chooses someone of opposite colors. As individuals we don’t tend to pay attention to the color of the eye or hair of others.

One article that contradicts all of our hypotheses is why opposite attract; people look for differences in others that make them feel good about themselves. For example, people be like “you complement me”, meaning people be lacking on certain traits they want and find it in an ideal partner. This contradicts our results because people do feel attracted to others who have different traits than what they have.         

In conclusion, future researchers should make sure they are gathering participants; men and women equally. Researchers should also gather an equal number of participants with blue eyes and brown eyes. Future researchers should find a universal definition for attraction within the subjects. Just keep in mind, there are many other ways to view attractiveness other than just looking at eye color and hair color.

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Figure 1

Note: There was no significant difference in whether subjects with brown eyes would favor models possessing similar eye color to their own t (43) = -.852, p = .399. There was no significant difference in whether subjects with blue eyes would favor models possessing similar eye color to

their own t (43) = 1.114, p = .272.