People comfortable with closeness who were single or sexually or relationally dissatisfied reported greater sexual nostalgia (fantasies with past partners); chronic sexual nostalgia detracted from satisfaction

Sexual Nostalgia as a Response to Unmet Sexual and Relational Needs: The Role of Attachment Avoidance. Amy Muise et al. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, March 14, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220907468

Abstract: Romantic relationships help people meet needs for connection and emotional and sexual fulfillment. In the current research, we investigate an unexplored response to feeling sexually and relationally unfulfilled: reflecting on positive sexual experiences with past partners (or sexual nostalgia). Across three studies, people low in attachment avoidance (i.e., comfortable with closeness) who were (a) single or (b) sexually or relationally dissatisfied reported greater sexual nostalgia, whereas people high in attachment avoidance (i.e., value autonomy) did not calibrate their feelings of sexual nostalgia based on their current relationship status or satisfaction. Sexual fantasies about past partners (i.e., sexual nostalgia) were distinct from other types of sexual fantasies (Study 1) and the effects could not be attributed to general nostalgia (Study 2) or sexual desire (Study 3). Chronic sexual nostalgia detracted from satisfaction over time. The findings have implications for theories of nostalgia and attachment and for managing unfulfilled needs in relationships.

Keywords: nostalgia, attachment, satisfaction, sexuality, relationships


Discussion

Given that romantic relationships are difficult to maintain
and that couples often report declines in their desire and satisfaction over time (e.g., McNulty et al., 2016), it is likely
that most people will encounter times in their lives when
they feel they have unfulfilled sexual and relational needs. In
the current research, we explored whether reflecting on or
reminiscing about past sexual partners (which we termed
sexual nostalgia) is one response to having unfulfilled sexual
or relational needs. Study 1 revealed that sexual nostalgia
involves sexual memories or sexual fantasies about a past
partner and provided evidence that fantasies about past partners are distinct from other types of sexual fantasies. In participants’ descriptions of past partner sexual fantasies, the
most commonly reported theme was that people tend to draw
on these fantasies when feeling lonely or dissatisfied in a
current relationship. The data across all three studies converged with this theme from the qualitative data and indicated that when people are single or feeling dissatisfied with
their sex life or relationship, they reported more sexual nostalgia (however, in Study 3, the effects were driven by men).
Also, consistent with past research on general nostalgia and
attachment theory (e.g., Wildschut et al., 2010), people low
in attachment avoidance—those who are comfortable with
closeness—calibrated their feelings of sexual nostalgia based
on their current feelings of fulfillment, whereas those high in
avoidance did not. That is, people low in avoidance reported
greater sexual nostalgia when they were single, or feeling
unfulfilled in their current relationship, but for people high in
avoidance, their feelings of sexual nostalgia did not differ
based on their current fulfillment.


Extending Nostalgia to the Sexual Domain

Previous research has found that nostalgia is often triggered
by negative feelings, such as loneliness and disconnection,
and drawn on as a way to restore positive self-regard and
social connection (Wildschut et al., 2006). We extended past
work on nostalgia to sexuality to test whether sexual nostalgia is heightened in response to low sexual and relational
fulfillment. The current findings do not simply mirror past
work on nostalgia in the sexual domain but indicate that reminiscing about past sexual experiences is a unique way that
people might cope with feeling dissatisfied in their current
relationship or situation. In Study 2, we demonstrated that
sexual nostalgia is distinct from general nostalgia and that
people do not draw on general nostalgia in response to a lack
of fulfillment in their relationship or sex life. The associations with sexual nostalgia for a past partner also seem to be
distinct from reminiscing about an earlier time in the current
relationship—the function, if any, of reflecting on nostalgic
sexual experiences with a current partner is an interesting
avenue for future research.

One reason why nostalgic memories are thought to be powerful for restoring social connection when threatened or lonely is because they affirm that a person is loved and accepted and momentarily make a valuable past experience part of one’s present (Sedikides et al., 2008). Our findings from Study 1 that fantasies about past partners are distinct from other types of sexual fantasies suggest that fantasizing about a past partner might provide something unique when feeling dissatisfied that other sexual fantasies cannot provide. Sexual fantasies in general can serve a compensatory function (e.g., Birnbaum, 2007); women in longer (compared with shorter) marriages are more likely to fantasize about a person other than their spouse (Pelletier & Herold, 1988), which may compensate for lower relationship satisfaction or sexual boredom (Trudel, 2002). Given that fantasies about past partners are based on real experiences, these types of fantasies might have the unique ability to validate one’s sense of their sexual self and their desirability. Past research on general nostalgia has shown that feelings of nostalgia can lead people to connect with their authentic self (Baldwin et al., 2015), and in this sense, sexual nostalgia might lead people to feel sexually authentic. In addition, feelings of disconnection from a specific close other can be tempered by substituting another connection (Baumeister & Leary, 1995), and in the context of romantic and sexual relationships, past partners might be the most appropriate substitute on which to reflect.

Although there is evidence that reflecting on nostalgic
experiences leads to positive self-regard, feelings of love and
protection (Wildschut et al., 2006), and feeling that one’s life
is meaningful (Routledge et al., 2008), nostalgic memories
also give rise to negative emotions. When people wrote
about a nostalgic event (compared with an ordinary event),
the narratives included themes of both happiness and sadness
(Wildschut et al., 2008), although in past experimental studies, evoked nostalgic memories tended to be more positivelyvalanced (Wildschut et al., 2006). Recent work has found
that nostalgic memories that occur naturally in daily life are
associated with mixed emotions but may be more imbued
with negative as opposed to positive feelings (Newman et al.,
2019). People who were more chronically nostalgic reported
lower well-being (Newman et al., 2019). These findings converge with the current findings on sexual nostalgia. In Study
3, people who reported more sexual nostalgia over the course
of the 28-day diary study felt less satisfied with their sex
lives and relationships 3 months later. It is possible that brief
reflection on positive past sexual experiences may help people manage a current lack of fulfillment, but chronically
reflecting on past sexual experiences may detract from their
current relationship. More research is needed to consider the
costs and benefits of sexual nostalgia for feelings of satisfaction and overall well-being Attachment Avoidance and Sexual Nostalgia
The current findings that people low in attachment avoidance calibrate their sexual nostalgia based on their current
feelings of fulfillment or satisfaction, but people high in
avoidance do not, are consistent with past research.
Avoidant people do not tend to seek support from others
when distressed or rejected (e.g., Mikulincer & Shaver,
2008) and often view their partners as unresponsive.
Therefore, avoidant people may not see past partners as
sources of connection and comfort. It was not the case,
however, that avoidant people did not draw on sexual nostalgia. In Studies 1 and 3, people higher (compared with
lower) in avoidance reported higher overall levels of sexual
nostalgia. Avoidant people seem to draw on sexual nostalgia even when they are satisfied in a current relationship,
possibly suggesting a more chronic need to distance themselves from closeness and intimacy in relationship. In fact,
people low in avoidance who were satisfied in their relationship are the people who did not draw on sexually nostalgia, possibly as a cognitive strategy to avoid reflecting
on alternatives to their current relationship.
The attachment system and the sexual system are inextricably linked as romantic partners serve as both attachment figures and sexual partners (Birnbaum, 2010).
Therefore, memories of past sexual partners might provide
both feelings of connection and sexual desirability, especially for people who are low in attachment avoidance.
Securely attached individuals view sex as a way to express
intimacy, feel confident, and fulfill needs for connection
(e.g., Birnbaum, 2016), and as such, memories of past sexual experiences might provide a powerful source to boost
feelings of connection and restore sexual confidence when
feeling unfulfilled. People high in attachment avoidance,
however, do not use sex to achieve emotional intimacy in
relationships and tend to distance themselves from romantic or emotional motives for sex (Birnbaum, 2016). Given
that sexual fantasies can represent attachment-related
wishes, such as avoidant people seeing themselves as less
helpless and intimate in their fantasies (Birnbaum et al.,
2011), people may use fantasies or memories of past partners to meet their attachment-related needs. The current
findings suggest just that when people low in attachment
avoidance feel that their sexual or relational needs are
unmet, they are more likely to reflect on past sexual relationships, possibly to temporarily meet those needs.


Limitations and Future Directions

The current research provides novel insight into one strategy
people use when their sexual and relational needs are unfulfilled, but many questions remain. Although we have evidence across three studies that people low in attachment
avoidance draw on sexual nostalgia when single or dissatisfied, we do not yet know what feelings of sexual nostalgia
provide in the moment. Given that the daily effects in Study 3
were driven by men, it is possible that men might draw on
past experiences in response to daily changes in satisfaction,
whereas women might draw on sexual nostalgia only when
feeling chronically unfulfilled. Related to this, we do not
know the function of sexual nostalgia for people high in
attachment avoidance, who, overall reported higher levels of
sexual nostalgia, and draw on sexual nostalgia even when satisfied. It is also likely that it is healthy for people to be able to
fulfill some emotional and social needs outside of their
romantic relationship (i.e., there might be some limitations to
how we assessed emotional need fulfillment in Study 2), and
if needs are being met in other close relationships, unmet
needs in a current romantic relationship might not trigger nostalgia or might not detract from satisfaction. Future work
might consider when and for whom sexual nostalgia is functional for helping people manage unfulfilled needs and when
sexual nostalgia is harmful for relationships.
Our theoretical predictions suggest that sexual nostalgia
occurs in response to unmet sexual or relational needs, but it
is also possible that sexual nostalgia might lead to feeling
dissatisfied or unfulfilled. When people described sexual
fantasies about past partners in Study 1, one theme that
emerged was that those fantasies could be triggered by visiting a certain place, smelling a type of perfume or cologne, or
hearing a certain song (much like general nostalgic memories). If sexual nostalgia is triggered externally, reflecting on
a past sexual experience might lead to feeling less satisfied in
a current relationship. In Study 3, we have evidence that
chronic sexual nostalgia in a relationship can detract from
satisfaction over time. Past research on general thoughts
about an ex-partner found that declines in satisfaction over
time were linked to longing for an ex-partner but also that
longing for an ex-partner detracted from satisfaction in a current relationship (Spielmann et al., 2012). Therefore, it is
possible that feelings of dissatisfaction might lead to greater
sexual nostalgia, but that more chronic nostalgia also detracts
from satisfaction. Future work might consider the trajectory
of sexual nostalgia and relationship and sexual satisfaction
over time to tease this apart.

Few Greek tragedies fully conform to the humanist commentary on them; modem criticism has projected a Victorian & Protestant high seriousness upon pagan culture that still blankets teaching of the humanities

Few Greek tragedies fully conform to the humanist commentary on them; modem criticism has projected a Victorian and, I feel, Protestant high seriousness upon pagan culture that still blankets teaching of the humanities. Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, 1990.

Few Greek tragedies fully conform to the humanist commentary on them. Their barbaric residue will not come unglued. Even in the fifth century, as we shall see, a satiric response to Apollonianized theater came in Euripides’ decadent plays. Problems in accurate assessment of Greek tragedy include not only the loss of three-quarters of the original body of work but the lack of survival of any complete satyr-play. This was the finale to the classic trilogy, an obscene comic burlesque. In Greek tragedy, comedy always had the last word. Modem criticism has projected a Victorian and, I feel, Protestant high seriousness upon pagan culture that still blankets teaching of the humanities. Paradoxically, assent to savage chthonian realities leads not to gloom but to humor. Hence Sade’s strange laughter, his wit amid the most fantastic cruelties. For life is not a tragedy but a comedy. Comedy is bom of the clash between Apollo and Dionysus. Nature is always pulling the rug out from under our pompous ideals.

Both the Apollonian and Judeo-Christian traditions are transcendental. That is, they seek to surmount or transcend nature. Despite Greek culture’s contrary Dionysian element, which I will discuss, high classicism was an Apollonian achievement. Judaism, Christianity’s parent sect, is the most powerful of protests against nature. The Old Testament asserts that a father god made nature and that differentiation into objects and gender was after the fact of his maleness. Judeo-Christianity, like Greek worship of the Olympian gods, is a sky-cult. It is an advanced stage in the history of religion, which everywhere began as earth-cult, veneration of fruitful nature.

The evolution from earth-cult to sky-cult shifts woman into the nether realm. Her mysterious procreative powers and the resemblance of her rounded breasts, belly, and hips to earth’s contours put her at the center of early symbolism. She was the model for the Great Mother figures who crowded the birth of religion worldwide. But the mother cults did not mean social freedom for women. On the contrary [...] cult-objects are prisoners of their own symbolic inflation. [...]

Woman was an idol of belly-magic. She seemed to swell and give birth by her own law. From the beginning of time, woman has seemed an uncanny being. Man honored but feared her. She was the black maw that had spat him forth and would devour him anew. Men, bonding together, invented culture as a defense against female nature. Sky-cult was the most sophisticated step in this process, for its switch of the creative locus from earth to sky is a shift from belly-magic to head-magic. And from this defensive head-magic has come the spectacular glory of male civilization, which has lifted woman with it. The very language and logic modem woman uses to assail patriarchal culture were the invention of men.

Hence the sexes are caught in a comedy of historical indebtedness. Man, repelled by his debt to a physical mother, created an alternate reality, a heterocosm to give him the illusion of freedom. Woman, at first content to accept man’s protections but now inflamed with desire for her own illusory freedom, invades man’s systems and suppresses her indebtedness to him as she steals them. By head-magic she will deny there ever was a problem of sex and nature. She has inherited the anxiety of influence.

Sex therapies believe guiltless, no-fault sex is possible, but sex is the point of contact between man and nature, where morality and good intentions fall to primitive urges

Behaviorist sex therapies believe guiltless, no-fault sex is possible, but sex is the point of contact between man and nature, where morality and good intentions fall to primitive urges. Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, 1990.

[...] Behaviorist sex therapies believe guiltless, no-fault sex is possible. But sex has always been girt round with taboo, irrespective of culture. Sex is the point of contact between man and nature, where morality and good intentions fall to primitive urges. [...] Eroticism is a realm stalked by ghosts. It is the place beyond the pale, both cursed and enchanted.

[...] much in culture goes against our best wishes. Integration of man's body and mind is a profound problem that is not about to be solved by recreational sex or an expansion of women's civil rights. Incarnation, the limitation of mind by matter, is an outrage to imagination. Equally outrations is gender, which we have not chosen but which nature has imposed upon us. Our physicality is torment [...].

The ghost-ridden character of sex is implicit in Freud’s brilliant theory of “family romance.” We each have an incestuous constellation of sexual personae that we carry from childhood to the grave and that determines whom and how we love or hate. Every encounter with friend or foe, every clash with or submission to authority bears the perverse traces of family romance. Love is a crowded theater, for as Harold Bloom remarks, “We can never embrace (sexually or otherwise) a single person, but embrace the whole of her or his family romance.” 1 We still [this was written in 1990] know next to nothing of the mystery of cathexis, the investment of libido in certain people or things. The element of free will in sex and emotion is slight. As poets know, falling in love is irrational.

Like art, sex is fraught with symbols. Family romance means that adult sex is always representation, ritualistic acting out of vanished realities. A perfectly humane eroticism may be impossible. Somewhere in every family romance is hostility and aggression, the homicidal wishes of the unconscious. Children are monsters of unbridled egotism and will, for they spring directly from nature, hostile intimations of immorality. We carry that daemonic will within us forever. Most people conceal it with acquired ethical precepts and meet it only in their dreams, which they hastily forget upon waking. The will-to-power is innate, but the sexual scripts of family romance are learned. Human beings are the only creatures in whom consciousness is so entangled with animal instinct. In western culture, there can never be a purely physical or anxiety-free sexual encounter. Every attraction, every pattern of touch, every orgasm is shaped by psychic shadows.

Lonely, Poor, and Ugly? How Cultural Practices and Forms of Capital Relate to Physical Unattractiveness

Lonely, Poor, and Ugly? How Cultural Practices and Forms of Capital Relate to Physical Unattractiveness. Christian Schneickert, Leonie C. Steckermeier, Lisa-Marie Brand. Cultural Sociology, March 10, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975520905417

Abstract: Physical attractiveness is increasingly framed as a meritocratic good that involves individual benefits, such as higher wages or success in the partner market. Investing in one’s physical appearance is thereby seen as a means to increase one’s human capital. While the positive effects are well documented, its counterpart, the dark side of physical appearance, has received much less attention from social science research. This article sheds light on the negative effects of physical appearance using a theoretical framework based on the cultural sociology of Bourdieu, integrating both structure and agency perspectives. Using data from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) from 2014, we demonstrate that unattractiveness is socially stratified by economic, cultural, and social capital. The article highlights the relevance of cultural factors (e.g. forms of cultural capital and cultural practices) for the analysis of the interplay between physical appearance and stratification as well as the relevance of physical appearance for cultural sociology.

Keywords Attractiveness, habitus, cultural capital, cultural practices, economic capital, social capital

Check also Unattractive people are unaware of their (un)attractiveness. Tobias Greitemeyer. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, March 11 2020. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2020/03/unattractive-people-are-unaware-of.html

---

Conclusions

This article has investigated the relations between forms of capital, cultural practices and the perception of physical appearance. From a critical discussion of some recent approaches in this area of research, we developed a theoretical framework for the analysis of unattractiveness based on the cultural sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. Three aspects stand out from this perspective:

• (1) We focus on the “dark side of physical appearance” by analysing the possible social penalties of unattractiveness.
• (2) The majority of the research in this area focused on the effects of physical appearance on stratification. Recently, studies have focused on agency and the effects of stratification on physical appearance as well. We integrate both perspectives within our theoretical framework and investigate both directions empirically.
• (3) Finally, we highlight the role of cultural factors, especially cultural capital and cultural practices, in the analysis of physical appearance.

Our study shows that physical appearance is linked to social stratification. Regarding unattractiveness as a dependent variable, all forms of capital (but especially institutionalised and objectified cultural capital) significantly decrease unattractiveness. The cultural practices of highbrow cultural participation (reading, theater, opera), physical activities, and (surprisingly) drinking alcohol decrease unattractiveness, while smoking has negative effects on one’s physical appearance. These effects are stable even when controlling for many socio-demographic variables and other forms of capital. Beyond these effects, being single or separated is associated with being less attractive.

Regarding the forms of capital as dependent variables, unattractiveness decreases the accumulation of all forms of capital. The effects are stable and significant independently of socio-demographic characteristics and cultural practices. Taken together, we find clear associations between physical appearance and forms of capital (and vice versa). While previous studies have largely focused on the effects of attractiveness on economic capital (“not being poor”), social capital or the partner market (“not being lonely”), the relation between cultural factors and physical appearance has received less attention. Our study shows that forms of cultural capital and cultural practices should be included in the analysis of physical appearance and that physical appearance should receive more attention in cultural sociology.

It seems that the evaluation of one’s physical appearance must be conceptualised within a broader system of cultural classifications. Therefore, cultural sociology should further elaborate on the role of physical appearance in cultural spheres, especially focusing on cross-cultural differences in the nexus of unattractiveness, cultural capital and stratification.

A large number of observers were completely unaware of drastic color manipulations (hue rotation, desaturation) of the images shown to them; much of our experience of a colorful world seems to be a confabulation

Cohen, Michael, and Jordan Rubenstein. 2019. “How Much Color Do We See in the Blink of an Eye?.” PsyArXiv. July 28. doi:10.31234/osf.io/enywt

Abstract: Visual experience is painted in color. A change in hue or saturation can dramatically alter our understanding of a scene and how we feel about it. Subjectively, color does not feel like an optional dimension to be extracted only when necessary, but an automatically represented property of our entire visual field. Here, we ask whether that subjective impression is true. Using a variant of an inattentional blindness paradigm, we showed observers snapshots of colorful scenes when unbeknownst to them, an image was presented that was either desaturated or hue rotated across an overwhelming majority of the images. Although observers fixated on these images long enough to identify and describe them, a large number of observers were completely unaware of these drastic color manipulations. These findings suggest that much of our experience of a colorful world may be a confabulation.

Women's use of intimate apparel as subtle sexual signals in committed, het. relationships: Women report wearing sexier underwear the day taking the survey if they anticipate sexual activity that same day

Women's use of intimate apparel as subtle sexual signals in committed, heterosexual relationships. Lyndsey K. Craig ,Peter B. Gray. March 13, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230112

Abstract: Current literature on women’s sexual signaling focuses on modes of attracting potential, new sexual partners, but says little about women’s subtle sexual signals in committed, romantic relationships. Subtle sexual signals are inherently private and are only visible to the intended audience; a woman might use these signals to elicit or accept a sexual response from her partner or to increase her overall attractiveness, or attractivity. In this study, we sought to identify women’s use of intimate apparel as a proceptive or receptive behavior as well as the effects of relative mate value, relationship commitment, relationship satisfaction, and sexual functioning. A total of N = 353 women in the United States aged 25–45 who were in committed, heterosexual relationships completed the survey; 88.7%
 of the sample indicated wearing or having worn sexy underwear. Results indicate that women report wearing sexier underwear the day taking the survey if they anticipate sexual activity that same day. However, during the most recent sexual activity, women did not report wearing sexier underwear if they initiated (proceptive) that activity. While relative mate value was not directly related to sexiness of intimate apparel, women who report higher mate value tend to wear sexier underwear. Women’s use of intimate apparel might be viewed as a method of increasing attractivity and underlying receptivity to aid relationship maintenance, though caveats regarding measures and alternative interpretations are also discussed. Findings suggest that these women use intimate apparel to feel sexy, desired, aroused, and to prepare for sex with their partners. This study is the first to examine intimate apparel in relationships and as a subtle sexual signal of proceptivity and receptivity.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to identify women’s use of intimate apparel as a subtle sexual signal of proceptivity and receptivity in heterosexual romantic relationships; however, our findings suggest intimate apparel might serve another purpose for the women in this study. We predicted that women would wear sexier underwear when they expected to be sexually active and when initiating sexual activity. Women in this study did indeed report wearing sexier underwear when intending to be sexually active later that day, but women’s use of intimate apparel did not significantly contribute to sexual initiation. We also predicted that if a woman’s perceived mate value was relatively lower than her partner’s, she would be more likely to use intimate apparel to signal her proceptivity and receptivity. Conversely, we found that when a woman’s relative mate value was similar to or higher than–but not less than–her partner’s mate value, she reported wearing sexier underwear across all three contexts.

Further analyses into MVD found that women in relationships with men of higher mate value than themselves, and relatively high independent mate values, felt more overall satisfied and committed to the relationship; but her partner’s relative mate value did not influence her sexual experiences. Additionally, a woman’s independent mate value predicted the sexiness of her underwear despite her commitment, satisfaction, and perception of her partner’s mate value. Based on relative mate value, women might use intimate apparel when they feel more confident about themselves and their sexuality rather than as a signal of proceptivity and receptivity to their partner. So, why do women use intimate apparel if not for sexual signaling?

The number one reason women in this study reported wearing sexy underwear was “to feel sexy,” which is consistent with other findings on intimate apparel [42, 43]. Use of intimate apparel might also act as a form of self-arousal: a thorough review of women’s sexual desire by Meana [55] suggests that women want to feel sexually desired. Although a main factor in the decline of sexual desire and overall functioning for women is the presence of children and increased roles and responsibilities [56–58], the current study found that women’s parental status, employment status, income, and age were not predictors for the use of intimate apparel. We found the best predictors for women’s use of intimate apparel during their most sexual encounter to be relative mate value, relationship commitment, and relationship satisfaction. Other reasons reported for wearing intimate apparel were as a gift for their partner (M = 5.24, SD = 1.71) or on special occasions (M = 5.41, SD = 1.39). Furthermore, Pearson correlation analysis showed women who wore sexier underwear reported greater sexual desire (r = .218, p < .001) within the last four weeks and greater sexual desire (r = .271, p < .001), arousal (r = .291, p < .001), and satisfaction (r = .204, p < .001) during their most recent sexual encounter. Because there is a decline in sexual desire with relationship duration [57, 59], these women might be using intimate apparel to increase their own sexual desire, thus enhancing sexual encounters with their romantic partner [60] and maintaining the relationship they are committed to. Taken together, these results suggest women might use intimate apparel to increase their attractivity, which reflects a background signal of availability to romantic partners.

Limitations and future research

This study is subject to limitations. These data worked under the assumption that the respondents had only one romantic partner; extra pair partners could potentially influence how women use intimate apparel in their daily lives as well as within their committed relationships. Results were also not adjusted for time-of-day or cycle phase. A methodological limitation to this study is that participants were not asked the duration of their relationship, so use of intimate apparel across time could not be measured. Schmiedeberg and Shroder [61] found that sexual satisfaction peaks in the second half of the first year of a relationship and then declines over time. As the relationship progresses, the couple becomes more acquainted with one another and experience mutual life stressors; the couple transitions into the companionate phase, characterized by a state of comfort and commonality [62]. However, Frederick, Lever, Gillespie and Garcia [60] found that passion in romantic relationships can be maintained by enhancing the quality of the sexual encounters with sensual touch and “I love you” statements, so use of intimate apparel might also serve to maintain passion.

Another methodological limitation was the measure for initiation (mentioned in the Results), which was one item asking, “Did you or your partner initiate your most recent sexual encounter?” without a clear definition of initiate. A more specific measure of MVD beyond self and partner desirability would provide greater insight into individuals’ perceptions of themselves and their partners. Because this study focused on heterosexual women, future studies should examine how lesbian women use intimate apparel in their short- and long-term romantic relationships. Finally, this study does not provide support for intimate apparel as a form of proceptivity; future research might ask more probing question about sexual activities, specifically in open-ended interviews.

These findings might also have clinical significance in that women’s use of intimate apparel could reflect women’s body image. In a comprehensive review on women’s body image and sexual functioning, Woetman and ban den Brink [58] found a positive relationship between body image and sexual desire overall. They also found that women’s sexual arousal and satisfaction can be negatively affected by self-inspection and -evaluation during sexual activity. Another study on body image and romantic relationships found that body appreciation was positively associated with relationship quality as well as sexual satisfaction [63]. Because women in this study who reported higher mate value were more likely to wear sexier underwear, body image might play a role in women’s choice of intimate apparel and overall impact relationship and sexual satisfaction. Women who have lower body image might not have the confidence to wear sexier underwear, which could itself negatively affect her sexual desire and arousal. Future research into effects of body image should incorporate women’s use of intimate apparel as well as mate value to better understand these associations.

Forgetting in relation to trauma and victimhood can be complicated and controversial, with some victims preferring to retain their painful memories, even at a personal cost

Punishing the Crime of Forgetting. Emily V. Shaw, Elizabeth F. Loftus. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, Volume 9, Issue 1, March 2020, Pages 24-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2019.11.003

Abstract: Although many people think that forgetting is a problem in life, and it often is, they would do well to appreciate the benefits of forgetting. Fawcett and Hulbert (2020) have marshaled a powerful argument for the adaptive value of forgetting, highlighting the many ways that forgetting is both a common and essential feature of cognition. Their arguments have implications for memory as it plays out in real life, but here we focus on implications in the legal realm. We make two major points. First, within the legal system, forgetting on the part of criminal defendants can transcend mere embarrassment or inconvenience, and can actually implicate defendants in criminal acts. Second, forgetting in relation to trauma and victimhood can be complicated and controversial, with some victims preferring to retain their painful memories, even at a personal cost.

Defendant Alibis: When Forgetting is a Crime

Fawcett and Hulbert (2020) aptly rebuke the notion of forgetting as nothing more than a cognitive “sin,” but the notion of forgetting as bad or blameworthy thrives in the legal system. The courts frequently rely on the sworn testimony of witnesses, who pledge to relay information accurately—“the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” In this domain, accurate memory can be the difference between compensation or liability, freedom or captivity, and even life or death.

One particularly challenging memory-related task within the legal system is providing an alibi. When people are considered potential suspects in a crime, they may be asked to account for their whereabouts at the time of the crime. For innocent suspects, this task may require them to recall mundane details from an earlier time—sometimes days, weeks, or months prior. Inaccuracies that are later discovered have been used against suspects, with suggestions that they were deliberately lying.

It is hard to overstate how challenging the task of providing a flawless alibi can be for the average person. Multiple research studies have examined memory in this setting and found that innocent people struggle to give accurate, consistent alibis. In one study, participants were asked to describe their location and activities during a specific afternoon three weeks prior (Strange, Dysart, & Loftus, 2015). Participants were then asked to come back a week later, repeat their “alibi,” and provide supporting evidence for their account. Nearly half were inconsistent between their first and second account; many were completely unable to provide any supporting evidence at all. Another study of alibi accuracy found that, when given two days to check their own alibi, 36% of participants had to amend their initial accounts, changing factual details or adjusting the supporting evidence (Olson & Charman, 2012). These studies show that on-the-spot recollections about one's whereabouts at a specific time in the past—in other words, providing an accurate alibi—can be riddled with error.

But why is it hard for many people to provide accurate alibis the first time? Fawcett and Hulbert (2020) provide a helpful explanation through their discussion of the “Clarity” virtue of forgetting. The argument goes like this: When an activity is rather ordinary, like biking to work each day, it is not particularly useful to remember in detail. Unless something occurs to prompt memory retention, it may be most efficient for the memory to be effectively erased (Davis & Zhong, 2017, cited within Fawcett & Hulbert, 2020). In the context of alibi recollection, if the activity that a person is called to account for is ordinary, it may be more likely to be forgotten and subsequently misreported. Moreover, the task of alibi reporting is made even more difficult by the nature of the prompt that produces the alibi (e.g., Leins & Charman, 2016). Many memories are not stored in ways specific to a particular date or time, but this is often what investigators are seeking an account of when they request an alibi.

Unfortunately, the tendency for people to incorrectly recount their own past activities, while harmless in ordinary life, can be disastrous for suspects who need to provide alibis.

[...]

Dampening Traumatic Memories

The “Serenity” virtue of forgetting, as described by Fawcett and Hulbert (2020) illustrates how forgetting can help people overcome the burdens of negative memories and enable people to forgive transgressions. Notably, these benefits can occur with or without conscious intent on the part of the person experiencing troubling memories. But what if a person seeking to forget did not need to actively seek distraction, or wait passively for forgetting to occur, but could instead willfully choose to delete a traumatic experience from memory?

This possibility is not (total) science fiction. Medical researchers have been testing drugs such as propranolol which have the potential to dramatically reduce the formation of traumatic, emotionally-charged long-term memories (and PTSD) when consumed close to the time of a stressful event (Brunet et al., 2008, Pitman et al., 2002; see also Kolber, 2006, Kolber, 2008). Such drugs may eventually become a regular part of post-trauma medical care, and their potential applications for reducing memory of trauma are fascinating and controversial.

Advocates of the use of memory-dampening drugs assert that this is a method of reducing human suffering and an option that victims deserve to have available to them. However, critics argue that victims of crime may have a duty to hold on to these memories for the sake of justice; successful prosecution of perpetrators could be made difficult if victims chose to forget criminal acts committed against them (see Kolber, 2008), potentially leaving those perpetrators free to harm others.

Interestingly, the limited research that has been done on perceptions of these memory-dampening drugs suggests that the public is reluctant to consider using them. For example, one study by Newman, Berkowitz, Nelson, Garry, and Loftus (2011) provided Americans and New Zealanders with a series of hypothetical scenarios where a memory-dampening drug could be used. Participants were asked to imagine they were either a restaurant manager or a soldier on a peace-keeping mission and were the victim of a violent assault. Overwhelmingly, a large majority of participants in both countries and across all scenarios indicated they would not want to take the memory-dampening drug. This was true even when participants were warned that they had a 40% chance of developing PTSD, and it was true even for participants who reported past experience with traumatic events. In fact, participants who reported past traumatic experiences were significantly less likely to want the drug then those who did not report prior traumatic experiences.

This study suggests that victims may be unwilling to dampen their own traumatic memories when given the opportunity to do so, even when warned there is a sizable risk of lasting psychological harm (i.e., developing PTSD). When given the choice to forget a trauma, extending and deliberately controlling the “Guardian” role of forgetting through drugs, it appears many people would prefer not to forget.

Men and Women Differ in Their Perceptions of Sex Robots and Platonic Love Robots

Friends, Lovers or Nothing: Men and Women Differ in Their Perceptions of Sex Robots and Platonic Love Robots. Morten Nordmo, Julie Øverbø Næss, Marte Folkestad Husøy and Mads Nordmo Arnestad. Front. Psychol., March 13 2020. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00355

Abstract: Physical and emotional intimacy between humans and robots may become commonplace over the next decades, as technology improves at a rapid rate. This development provides new questions pertaining to how people perceive robots designed for different kinds of intimacy, both as companions and potentially as competitors. We performed a randomized experiment where participants read of either a robot that could only perform sexual acts, or only engage in non-sexual platonic love relationships. The results of the current study show that females have less positive views of robots, and especially of sex robots, compared to men. Contrary to the expectation rooted in evolutionary psychology, females expected to feel more jealousy if their partner got a sex robot, rather than a platonic love robot. The results further suggests that people project their own feelings about robots onto their partner, erroneously expecting their partner to react as they would to the thought of ones’ partner having a robot.

Discussion

The results of the analysis confirms previous findings that males are more positive toward the advent of robots than females (Scheutz and Arnold, 2016). Females who had read about the sex robot reported particularly elevated levels of jealousy, less favorable attitudes, more dislike and more predicted partner’s dislike. This pattern was not found in the male sample, whose feelings were largely unaffected by the type of robot they were made to envision.

One possible explanation for the gender difference could be a combination of differences in how males and females frame the concept of human-robot sexual relations, as well as different attitudes toward masturbation and the use of artificial stimulants for masturbatory purposes. Past research has indicated that males masturbate more, have more permissible attitudes toward masturbation, use more pornography, and have more permissive views of pornography consumption (Baumeister et al., 2001; Petersen and Hyde, 2010; Regnerus et al., 2016; Maas et al., 2018). If the males in the present study framed the prospect of having sex with robots as allegorically to masturbation with pornography, while the females considered the act more allegorical to cheating, one would expect the present results to emerge. While we did not include measures of how the participants view sex with robots, past research has suggested that males tend to think of sex with robots as a form of masturbation, not sex (Scheutz and Arnold, 2016). The overall gender difference in attitudes may also be partly due to men expressing their positive views more readily, while women may explicitly or implicitly not want positive attitudes toward robots. Future research should explore the moral and relational framing of human-robot sex in depth, including potential gender differences therein.

A different explanation for the observed results is that sex dolls and sex robots to this day primarily have been marketed toward men (Danaher and McArthur, 2017). This can explain why this idea evokes stronger negative feelings among females. In addition, the men and women might react differently to the lack of strong social cues in the sex-robot. According to the Persuasive robot’s acceptance model (Shazwani binti Ghazali, 2019), social cues and a lack of social cues predict attitudes toward robots. Women may view the sex robot in a more negative way both because they do not observe social cues and do not have an immediate sexual response. The observed gender differences may also be partly due to men and women finding it difficult to visualize forming a romantic bond with a non-human entity. Interestingly, studies have revealed that people seem to assume a more mutual relationship even with completely non-social service robots like vacuum cleaners (Forlizzi and DiSalvo, 2006; Sung et al., 2007). Such findings suggest that people get deeply engaged with robots even without humanoid qualities. However, the current study suggest that this effect may only be present in true interaction, not when anticipating future interaction, as our results indicate relatively small effects.

Findings from evolutionary psychology has generally indicated that females experience more jealousy at the thought of their partner having a romantic bond with another person, while males experience more jealousy at the thought of their female partner having a sexual relationship with another man (Buss et al., 1992, 1996, 1999). This finding has been explained by the different evolutionary imperatives faced by males and females. In a pre-industrial state, males had to compete for reproductive resources, and could know for certain whether the offspring they provide valuable resources to were actually related to them. Males have therefore developed their feelings of jealousy as an adaptive strategy to motivate behaviors that reduce paternity uncertainty and loss of access to reproductive resources. Their jealousy is thus especially attuned to the threat of sexual encounters. Females, on the other hand, faced certainty in their rightful motherhood, but face the risk of their partner abandoning her and their common offspring, which severely compromises the odds of survival. Their jealousy is thus geared less toward purely sexual escapades without any other forms of attachment, and more concerned with emotional bonds that may distract paternal investment in partner and offspring. This adaptation account has been proposed as a the explanation for the observed gender differences across cultures (Buss and Haselton, 2005). One problem facing this account is that it can be difficult for participants to envision their partner in a purely emotional or purely sexual relationship with someone, without envisioning that the relationship can change and evolve over time. A purely romantic attraction can evolve into a sexual one, and vice versa. In this study, however, we offer a more “clean” manipulation of this variable, in that the robots we described were either purely sexual or purely non-sexual. The sex robot was explicitly described as unable to engage in anything more than a sexual relationship, while the platonic love robot was explicitly described as disembodied and unable to satisfy physical sexual urges. Our findings therefore shed new light on how males and females feel about different kinds of infidelity in a setting where sex cannot lead to love and love cannot lead to sex.

Our results further show that males and females varied in how they expected to feel if their partner acquired and used a sex robot or platonic love robot. However, the results demonstrate that both males and females fail to predict how their partner would feel if they themselves got a robot. Males, who report feeling at ease with the thought of their partner having a robot, erroneously expect that their partners will extend the same relaxed attitude toward them. Females on the other hand, who are negative to the prospect of their male partners having a sex robot, and neutral to them having a platonic love robot, erroneously expect their partners to react negatively to them having a sex robot and positively to them having a platonic love robot. These results are in line with a projection account, which suggests that people tend to expect their partners to feel as they would have, especially in emotionally charged situations (Newman et al., 1997; Kawada et al., 2004; Maner et al., 2005).

Limitations

There are two notable limitations to the present study. The first is the recruitment procedure and sample. Participants were recruited primarily via social media (Facebook) and accessible e-mail lists to workplaces. Therefore, our sample is likely to be influenced by a self-selection bias, whereby those who thought human-robotic interaction more interesting presumably were more likely to participate in the study. The sample of participants consisted of a majority of students, and was somewhat restricted in age variation, which limits the generalizability of the findings. In addition, the results cannot be directly generalized to homosexual populations as the sample was almost exclusively heterosexual. The second limitation is the use of novel non-validated measurements. There are few validated measurements of reactions to robots, and to the best of our knowledge, none that capture sentiments regarding sex and love robots. The Negative Attitudes toward Robots Scale (NARS) (Nomura et al., 2006b) is too general for the purposes of our study. In order to gain thorough understanding of how people feel about different types of robots designed for physical and emotional intimacy, improved measurement scales need to be designed and validated.

Mental Health Outcomes of Quarantine and Isolation for Infection Prevention: A Systematic Umbrella Review of the Global Evidence

Hossain, Mahbub, Abida Sultana, and Neetu Purohit. 2020. “Mental Health Outcomes of Quarantine and Isolation for Infection Prevention: A Systematic Umbrella Review of the Global Evidence.” PsyArXiv. March 13. doi:10.31234/osf.io/dz5v2

Abstract
Background: Transmission of infectious diseases is often prevented by quarantine and isolation of the populations at risk. These approaches restrict the mobility, social interactions, and daily activities of the affected individuals. In recent novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, quarantine and isolation is being adopted in many contexts, which necessitates an evaluation of global evidence on how such measures impact the mental health outcomes among populations. This umbrella review aimed to synthesize the available evidence on mental health outcomes of quarantine and isolation for preventing infectious diseases.
Materials and methods: We searched nine major databased and additional sources and included articles if they were systematically conducted reviews, published as peer-reviewed journal articles, and reported mental health outcomes of quarantine or isolation in any population.
Results: Among 1364 citations, only eight reviews met our criteria. Most of the primary studies in those reviews were conducted in high-income nations and in hospital settings. These articles reported a high burden of mental health problems among patients, informal caregivers, and healthcare providers who experienced quarantine or isolation. Prevalent mental health problems among the affected individuals include depression, anxiety, mood disorders, psychological distress, posttraumatic stress disorder, insomnia, fear, stigmatization, low self-esteem, lack of self-control, and other adverse mental health outcomes.
Conclusion: This umbrella review found severe mental health problems among individuals and populations who have undergone quarantine and isolation in different contexts. This evidence necessitates multipronged interventions including policy measures for strengthening mental health services globally and promoting psychosocial wellbeing among high-risk populations.

The Scent of a Good Night’s Sleep: Olfactory Cues of a Romantic Partner Improve Sleep Efficiency

The Scent of a Good Night’s Sleep: Olfactory Cues of a Romantic Partner Improve Sleep Efficiency. Marlise K. Hofer, Frances S. Chen. Psychological Science, March 12, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620905615

Abstract: Almost nothing is known about whether exposure to the scent of loved ones influences sleep. In the current study, 155 participants spent 2 nights with their partner’s scent and 2 nights with a control scent (in random order). Sleep was measured in two ways: sleep efficiency (via actigraphy) and perceived sleep quality (via self-report). Sleep efficiency was higher when participants were exposed to their partner’s scent. This increase occurred regardless of participants’ beliefs about the origin of the scent. Perceived sleep quality was higher when participants believed that they were smelling their partner’s scent. Exposure to a partner’s scent led sleep efficiency to increase by more than 2% on average, an improvement similar in magnitude to the effect of melatonin on sleep. The current work speaks to the critical role of olfaction in communication and reveals that social scents can impact sleep.

Keywords: olfaction, social communication, social support, nonverbal communication, health behaviors, open data, open materials, preregistered

Unattractive people are unaware of their (un)attractiveness

Unattractive people are unaware of their (un)attractiveness. Tobias Greitemeyer. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, March 11 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12631

Abstract: Past research has shown that how people rate their physical attractiveness is only moderately correlated with how they are rated by others, suggesting that at least some people have little insight into their true level of attractiveness. The present research tests the hypothesis that unattractive people are not aware of their unattractiveness. In fact, six studies (overall N = 1,180) showed that unattractive participants considerably overestimated their attractiveness compared to ratings by strangers. In contrast, attractive participants were more accurate. If anything, they underestimated their attractiveness. It was also examined why unattractive people overestimate their attractiveness. As expected, unattractive participants differentiated less between attractive and unattractive stimulus persons than did attractive participants. They were also more likely than attractive participants to select unattractive stimulus persons to compare themselves to. However, these tendencies did not account for why unattractive participants overestimated their attractiveness, nor did affirming participant’s self‐worth. Limitations and avenues for future research are discussed.

Discussion

Study 6 replicated Study 5 that unattractive people differentiate less than attractive people between unattractive and attractive stimulus persons. In particular, unattractive participants were more favorable toward unattractive stimulus persons. Study 6 further showed that unattractive participants were more likely than attractive participants to select an unattractive stimulus person with whom they would compare their attractiveness to. However, neither of these tendencies could explain why unattractive participants overestimated their attractiveness compared to the ratings by the other participants.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

The present set of studies addressed the relationship between self‐ratings of attractiveness and ratings by others. As in previous research (for meta‐analyses, Feingold, 1992; Langlois et al., 2000), the experimenters (Studies 1, 3–5), raters of the participant’s photographs (Study 2), and other participants (Study 6) showed high agreement about whether a person is attractive or not. In contrast, the relationship between the participant’s subjective and objective attractiveness ratings was relatively small. That is, whereas the interrater agreement of ratings of a target’s attractiveness was high, some of the targets had a different perception of how attractive they are.
All six studies provide compelling evidence that self‐ratings of unattractive people mostly differ from how others perceive their attractiveness. In fact, relative to ratings by strangers, all studies showed that unattractive participants considerably overestimated their attractiveness. It is remarkable that across all studies, unattractive participants reported to be above‐average (relative to the scale midpoint) and their self‐rated attractiveness was similar to how the objectively attractive participants rated their attractiveness. Moreover, unattractive participants were mostly unaware of how others rate their attractiveness. The objective attractiveness was much lower than how the unattractive participants believed to be perceived by strangers. Overall, unattractive participants judged themselves to be of about average attractiveness and they showed very little awareness that strangers do not share this view. In contrast, attractive participants had more insights into how attractive they actually are. If anything, they underestimated their attractiveness. It thus appears that unattractive people maintain illusory self‐perceptions of their attractiveness, whereas attractive people’s self‐views are more grounded in reality.
Whereas the effect that unattractive people overestimate their attractiveness compared to ratings by strangers could be firmly established, elucidating the exact underlying mechanisms awaits future research. The present studies tested some possible mechanisms but these appeared not to be the driving forces. Based on self‐affirmation theory (Steele, 1988), it was reasoned that if the overestimation effect has motivational roots, then affirming other aspects of the self should reduce defensive processes so that more accurate self‐perceptions result. However, both Studies 3 and 4 showed that a self‐affirmation manipulation that had successfully reduced defensive processing in previous research (Reed & Aspinwall, 1998) did not affect how unattractive participants rated their attractiveness. Hence, it appears that the wish to perceive oneself in a favorable way is not the main mechanism why unattractive people overestimate their attractiveness.
However, meta‐cognitive capacity and the comparison target approach also did not explain why the unattractive participants overestimated their attractiveness. Kruger and Dunning (1999) argued that incompetent people lack metacognitive skills that are needed to discern that one’s performance is poor. In line with their theorizing, they found that relatively incompetent participants were less able to gauge the competence of their peers than were relatively competent participants. We found a similar effect, in that unattractive participants differentiated less between attractive and unattractive stimulus persons than did attractive participants. In particular, they gave unattractive stimulus persons higher ratings than did attractive participants, whereas attractive stimulus persons were rated similarly. It thus appears that unattractive people not only perceive themselves as relatively attractive, they also rate other unattractive individuals relatively favorably. However, that unattractive people have particular beauty ideals (or have less meta‐cognitive skills to differentiate between attractive and unattractive stimulus persons) did not have an impact on how they perceive themselves. That is, that unattractive participants overestimated their attractiveness compared to ratings by strangers is not due to them rating all unattractive people (including themselves) relatively favorably.
Likewise, we did find the predicted effects that unattractive participants selected unattractive stimulus persons and attractive participants selected attractive stimulus persons with whom they would compare their attractiveness to. Hence, it would have been possible that both attractive and unattractive people believe that their attractiveness level is similar to most others, which could have explained the findings that attractive participants underestimated their attractiveness and that unattractive participants overestimated it. However, whether participants selected an attractive or unattractive stimulus person had no impact on how they rated their own attractiveness and thus could not explain why the self‐rated attractiveness of attractive and unattractive people hardly differed.
Although comparison choice did not have an impact on how unattractive participants rated their own attractiveness, the finding that unattractive participants selected unattractive stimulus persons with whom they would compare their attractiveness to suggests that they may have an inkling that they are less attractive than they want it to be. Given that people tend to compare themselves with those who they feel are similar (Wood, 1989), it appears that the unattractive participants realized that they had more in common with the unattractive rather than the attractive stimulus persons. Even though the self‐ratings of the unattractive participants suggest otherwise and that the unattractive participants reported to perceive themselves to be less attractive than they actually are, they seem to realize that they are less attractive than others.

Limitations and future research

Whereas the finding that unattractive people overestimate their attractiveness is extremely robust and can be considered a fact (in all studies, the effect sizes were large and relatively consistent in their magnitude), the underlying mechanisms are unclear so far. Theoretical explanations are available and were tested in the present research, but although some promising effects were found (e.g., attractive and unattractive participants differed in their ratings of unattractive stimulus persons), the mechanism why unattractive people overestimate their attractiveness is still unknown and needs further work.
In this regard, it might be important that the present research compared self‐ratings of attractiveness with attractiveness ratings by strangers. Previous research has shown that self‐ratings are typically higher than ratings by strangers (a finding that was consistently replicated in the present research), but self‐ratings tend to be lower than ratings by spouses (e.g., Murstein & Christy, 1976). More generally, it has repeatedly been shown that not only objectively visible traits but also contextual variables can influence how people’s physical attractiveness is rated by others (e.g., Faust, Chatterjee & Christopoulos, 2018; Kniffin & Wilson, 2004). For example, factors unrelated to physical features such as membership in a common social group (Escasa, Gray & Patton, 2010) or feelings toward other people (Kniffin, Wansink, Griskevicius & Wilson, 2014) have been shown to have an impact on the perception of others' attractiveness. In sum, there is the strong tendency that people rate a familiar individual that they also like as more attractive than would someone who is unfamiliar with that individual. As a consequence, it may well be that there is more concordance between how unattractive people perceive themselves and how they are perceived by others with whom they have social ties.
Moreover, whereas there is generally high agreement about who is attractive and who is not, beauty is still to some extent in the eye of the beholder. For example, in one study (Cross & Cross, 1971), 300 judges rated the attractiveness of stimulus persons in groups of six. The most attractive person was picked as best of its group by 207 judges, but even the least attractive person was chosen as best of its group by four judges. Interestingly, whereas there is relatively high agreement about the attractiveness of very attractive, attractive, about average, and unattractive individuals, there is rather disagreement about who is very unattractive (Kanazawa, Hu & Larere, 2018), meaning that very unattractive individuals are attractive to some (as in the Cross & Cross, 1971, study).
It thus may be that unattractive people take the positive feedback from their loved ones and those (few) that are attracted to them and use these as anchors for their self‐ratings and for how they believe they are rated by strangers. In fact, people selectively forget (Sedikides, Green, Saunders, Skowronksi & Zengel, 2016) and denigrate (Ditto & Lopez, 1992; Shepperd, 1993) negative feedback about themselves and they preferentially want to receive self‐enhancing feedback (Gaertner, Sedikides & Cai, 2012). Future research would be thus welcome that assesses the objective attractiveness of a target by raters that know the attractiveness target and examines to what extent people integrate these ratings into their self‐perceived attractiveness.
There is a further reason why a comparison between self‐ratings and ratings by people who are familiar with the target person would be worthwhile. As the present studies suggest, the unattractive participants deceived themselves in that they perceived themselves as more attractive than is actually warranted. Evolutionary theorizing (e.g., von Hippel & Trivers, 2011) argues that such an instance of overconfidence may have social advantages. For example, people may hold inflated self‐views as a means of persuading others to adopt these overly positive perceptions of them. That is, self‐deception evolved because it facilitates the deception of others. In line with these ideas, recent research (Murphy, von Hippel, Dubbs et al., 2015) tested whether overconfidence is associated with desirableness as a dating partner. In fact, overconfident authors’ of dating profiles were perceived as more desirable and this effect was mediated by how confident raters perceived the authors to be. Therefore, it might be that people who learn that an objectively unattractive individual perceives him/herself in a positive way may assume that this person has some physical qualities that warrant the confidence and, in turn, perceive the person more favorably. Future research may examine whether self‐ratings of attractiveness indeed have an impact on how an individual is perceived by others after the raters learned about the self‐ratings.
Another avenue for future research would be to examine why attractive participants underestimated how attractive they were rated by strangers. Part of the reason could be due to regression‐to‐the‐mean (if participants are rated very highly by others, there is little room left for overestimation). However, the unattractive participants’ overestimation was much more pronounced than was the attractive participants’ underestimation so the finding that attractive people underestimate their attractiveness is likely to have psychological roots as well.
Finally, a limitation of the present studies is that the raters in all studies could only see the faces and clothed bodies of the participants. It is rather likely that the participants considered not only their faces and dressed appearance but also their naked bodies to estimate their level of attractiveness. Hence, part of the reason why the self‐ratings of unattractive participants differed from the experimenter ratings could be that different criteria were used as indicators of the overall attractiveness (cf., Dunning et al., 1989).