Pupils' Effect on Humans' Attractiveness

Pupils' Effect on Humans' Attractiveness

Abstract

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In order to investigate whether our pupils affect how attractive we

are, an experimental technique was used, variables were manipulated

and data recorded.

The aim of this study was to investigate how the size of our pupils

affect how attractive we are perceived to be.

The method involved fifty participants who looked at two pictures and

rated their attractiveness.

It was hypothesised the pictures of people with dilated pupils will be

rated more attractive.

A chi-square test of association at a significance level of p=0.05

revealed that the experimental hypothesis was accepted and the null

hypothesis rejected.

The data collected illustrated that having larger pupils increases the

attractiveness and that constricted pupils made us less attractive.

The implications of this study, its limitations and suggestions of

follow up studies will be further discussed.

Introduction

Arousal affects the body in many ways. It relaxes the bronchi,

strengthens the heartbeat, inhibits activity in the digestive system,

contracts the blood vessels and dilated pupils. These are all part of

the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system, which comes

into play when we are aroused of alerted. The changes due to the

sympathetic branch help us to prepare for 'fight or flight' according

to 'Cannon.' When we see someone who is attractive, our pupils dilate.

If they find us attractive their pupils will also dilate. In the same

respect, people with dilated pupils seem to be more attractive

according to a study conducted by Hess. Psychologists argue that this

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... middle of paper ...

...so my findings cannot be generalised

to the whole population.

Another explanation is that I used a male picture as well as a female

picture whereas Hess only used a female picture. The significance of

this is that the male picture with constricted pupils could be seen as

more attractive as the picture with dilated pupils may intimidate both

males and females. Females may be sub consciously unaware that they

prefer the male with constricted pupils as he seem the 'safer' option.

It would be quite scary if a complete male stranger was aroused by

them. Males may be the same as this. When looking at the results in

the table you can see that less of the participants perceived the male

with dilated pupils as more attractive.

Overall, my experiment found that people with dilated pupils are

perceived as more attractive.