Attraction. It’s a funny thing. Some people are attracted to the tall, dark, handsome type. Others prefer the comedians, and still others see something in the athlete, the hipster, the nerd or the rebel.

Attraction is more than simply who has a crush on whom, however, and psychologists have developed a number of theories behind what makes a person attractive. Multiple factors play into the reason why some are more attractive than others, as well as the different components involved when choosing a partner.  

The four personality traits of global desire

In a study of over 10,000 peo men and women from six continents, researchers asked participants what traits they find most attractive in a potential partner, said Marie Heffernan, doctoral candidate in personality psychology at the University.

The first trait people said they wanted was mutual love or attraction. The second was dependable character. The third was emotional stability or maturity, and the fourth was a pleasing disposition.

Based on this research, it appears as though people are attracted to the “nice guys” and that it isn’t necessarily the “bad boy” or rebel who gets the partner, she said.

“I think what really matters is just if you guys make each other happy,” said Abigail Durkin, junior in LAS. “I’ve dated guys just because I thought they were good-looking or I liked their style or something, but we didn’t actually get along that well, and those ended pretty quick.” 

Physical appearance vs. personality

“Physical attractiveness is often the first thing that pops out at you because it’s the most immediately accessible piece of information about somebody,” Heffernan said.

However, after the initial attraction, personality is important to determine how happy people are in relationships.

People tend to be more satisfied in their relationship if their partner is high on agreeableness, is emotionally stable, and doesn’t have extreme changes in emotions, she said.

“I think physical attraction is a lot of times more important to younger people because they’re thinking more short-term,” said Taylor Ventress, senior in Engineering. “But when you’re older, you’re more mature about it, I guess, and don’t care as much about looks.”

The familiarity effect

According to this theory, individuals tend to like people who are physically close to them or whom they see more frequently, Heffernan said. “We tend to like familiar stimuli more than unfamiliar stimuli, and that holds for our attractiveness rating of our peers.” 

Various research supports this theory, specifically a study in which researchers had a group pretending to be students attend a class 15 times over the course of a semester and a second group of students attend only five times.

When researchers had the class’s actual students rate the actors on their attractiveness, those who attended more frequently were rated as more attractive. 

“So we tend to like people who we’re more familiar with is the bottom line with that,” she said.

Birds of a feather vs. opposites attract

There are two “lay theories” of attraction that involve competing ideas, Heffernan said. One is that people are attracted to those who are similar to them, and the other is that people like those who are opposite of them.

Research supports the similarity — or “birds of a feather” — hypothesis, which involves variables such as demographic characteristics, level of education and similar attractiveness.

“You and your boyfriend or girlfriend have to be pretty similar, because if you have nothing in common it’s pretty hard to do stuff together,” said Jenna O’Malley, sophomore in Education. “But I think you also have to have differences so you can have time to get away from each other and just do the things that interest just you.”

Menstrual cycles affect what women find attractive

In a study that manipulated male faces on a computer, researchers found that when women are in the ovulation stage of their menstrual cycle, they rate more masculine faces as more attractive than more feminine-looking male faces, Heffernan said.

However, when women are not ovulating, they prefer more feminine-looking male faces.

This probably has something to do with survival of the fittest, and the idea that more masculine-looking men are healthier or would produce healthier kids, Heffernan said.

The dark triad of personality: Three less attractive traits

The dark triad of personality is made up of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy, Heffernan said.

Narcissists tend to be attention-seeking, vain, arrogant and charming, she said.

“They also tend to be rather physically attractive because they’re very good at presenting themselves — they dress smartly and make themselves up nicer than non-narcissists,” Heffernan said.

Machiavellianism “involves callused emotional detachment,” she said. Machiavellians are calculating and manipulative.

Psycopathy involves being emotionally cold, manipulative, thrill-seeking and anti-social. In a study on the dark triad, researchers found that in general people did not find any of these traits attractive. 

But how might one explain the “bad boy” phenomenon?

“That study might suggest that people aren’t very attracted to bad boys if they’re thinking about it,” Heffernan said. “So, if they’re told, ‘Here’s what this guy’s like, are you attracted to him?’ then they might not be attracted to that person.”

However, of the three, narcissism was considered most attractive.

“Yeah, when you say narcissist I definitely wouldn’t say I’m attracted to that,” said Maddie Lloyd, junior in LAS. “But at the same time guys who are confident are really attractive, they know how to be smooth, so that might be why.” 

Julia can be reached at [email protected].