Is women's sociosexual orientation related to their physical attractiveness?

Claire I. Fisher*, Amanda C. Hahn, Lisa M. DeBruine, Benedict C. Jones

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Although many researchers have suggested that more physically attractive women report less restricted sociosexual orientations (i.e., report being more willing to engage in short-term, uncommitted sexual relationships), evidence for this association is equivocal. Consequently, we tested for possible relationships between women's scores on the revised version of the Sociosexual Orientation Inventory (SOI-R) and women's body mass index (N = 212), waist-hip ratio (N = 213), ratings of their facial attractiveness (N = 226), and a composite attractiveness measure derived from these three intercorrelated measures. Our analyses suggest that more attractive women report less restricted sociosexual orientations. Moreover, we show that this link between attractiveness and sociosexual orientation is not simply a consequence of women's scores on the behavior subscale of the SOI-R. Importantly, however, the correlations between measures of women's physical attractiveness and their reported sociosexual orientation were very weak, suggesting that perceptions of these potential cues of women's sociosexual orientation are unlikely to provide accurate, socially relevant information about others during social interactions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)396-399
Number of pages4
JournalPersonality and Individual Differences
Volume101
Early online date24 Jun 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Oct 2016

Funding

This research was funded by European Research Council Starting Grant 282655 awarded to BCJ.

Keywords

  • attractiveness
  • body mass index
  • body shape
  • mate preferences
  • mating
  • sociosexual orientation
  • sociosexuality

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