3rd Annual Academic Symposium - Samuel Faulkner

In determining how individuals perceive beauty it is important to consider the range of varying social contexts in which attractiveness is determined. The purpose of this study was to determine if the presence of individual same-sex stimuli would demonstrate gender differences in the perception of beauty. The hypotheses that men and women would differ in perception of attractiveness when exposed to an individual same-sex stimuli Hill and Buss (2008) determined that women found men more attractive when surrounded by a group of women and men found women less attractive when surrounded by a group of men. 26 participants (n=26), 7 male and 19 female observed a slideshow containing photos of only the opposite sex, or a slideshow in which certain opposite-sex photos were paired with same-sex photos. Both opposite-sex only slideshows and mixed same-sex and opposite-sex slideshows contained 15 photos. The mixed slideshows contained 6 paired (same-sex paired with opposite sex) photos. Participants were told to rate the opposite sex only on a scale of 1-10 (1 being very unattractive and 10 being very attractive) by calling it out to an administrator who would then write down the rating. A two-way Anova indicated there was no main effect for gender, no main effect for the type of stimulus, no interaction for gender, and no interaction for the type of stimulus. However, a One Way Anova indicated significant gender differences in each of the 6 paired photos. Finally, the recorded data set will be reanalyzed to further test the depth of gender differences when exposed to individual same-sex stimuli.