They say that beauty is inside, but a study found that, during first encounters, it’s mostly in the eyes of the beholder
What makes a person more attractive? Voice or smell are often considered important factors in choosing a partner, but an investigation published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, showed that they are not so decisive elements in the first dates. The study involved 67 adults and consisted of evaluating the attractiveness of potential partners of the opposite sex through quick dates.
attraction at first sight
The volunteers had to wear a T-shirt that was later used as an olfactory stimulus. In addition, during the process, a researcher took a photograph of each volunteer and recorded them reading a text.
Participants then rated the images, audio recordings and smells of the other participants. Then they moved on to the four-minute face-to-face quick dating sessions.
Scientists found that people who rated their partner as visually attractive also rated their voice and smell as positive aspects of attraction. What stood out the most, however, was a strong link between visual appeal ratings and a willingness to date a particular person again, rather than smell or voice.
The author of the study, Tom S. Roth He said people focused a lot on visual appeal at first. People who had already rated a photo of their boyfriend as attractive were also very likely to want to go on another date with them. However, they did not find such a strong effect for voice appeal and smell appeal. So it seems that the beauty during these early interactions is mostly in the eyes of the beholder, but not so much in the nose and ears.
Beware of the smell when going home from the bar
In the early stages of the research, people could only register attractiveness in static stimuli, that is, in an image, a sound recording or an odor sample. This works very well for visual appeal and especially for auditory appeal, which can be modified by a change in tone of voice or by vocal imitation.
This test was carried out in a very specific context. If the attractiveness of voice and smell were not the most significant factors, it is quite possible that they are in other environments. For example, it may be that someone’s smell is not noticeable in a crowded bar, but if you don’t like someone’s smell and live with that person, that would be a problem.
Roth made it clear that for future research, context must be taken into account because it is very important to understand whether voice and smell play a key role in partner-choice environments other than first impression.
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