In these days of Photoshop, the old phrase “the
camera never lies” is no longer to be heeded. Except, perhaps, before we set
about playing with pixels. At that point we stare at the screen and ask
ourselves why the bathroom mirror is so much kinder, even if we can’t describe
it as flattering.
Images, whether Photoshopped or not, are an
important feature of all on-line dating sites. OK, there is the list of
interests etc., but the photo is the focus.
Apparently, there is a strong suggestion in the
literature that there is a marked discrepancy in the attractiveness ratings of
individuals based on video clips compared to static pictures. The suggestion is
that the video images provide greater depth and richness to our assessment of
“like ” or “dislike”.
Now, of course, you need a whole studio facility to
modify a video sequence so maybe the richness can be outweighed by reality.
Rhodes and a large team from the U of Western Australia decided to put this to
the test and get a definitive answer as to whether static and video images were
at odds in depicting hot chaps (1).
In their experiments, the lab rats were 58 females
in the 17 - 35 age band and they were asked to rate static images and short
videos of 60 heterosexual men also in the same age band. The male attraction
rating ranged from 2 to 8 out of ten, but there was absolutely no difference
between the static image assessment or the video image assessment.
The team also rated the mating success of the guys
and found that it positively correlated with their attractiveness rating. In
other words, hot guys scored.
The final conclusion was that the videos didn’t do anything
in terms of assessment difference, and this was probably due to the girls
making an instant appraisal of how hot the guys were. This of course fits in
nicely with Gladwell’s conclusions in his book “Blink” in which he proposes
that we make our minds up very quickly with the minimum of information. Probably
an evolutionary trait when we were deciding if that big new beast was fierce or
friendly.
- http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0026653
- M. Gladwell, “Blink,” Little Brown & Co, New York, 2005.
