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Matching Hypothesis

A quick glance at couples in public settings will likely lead to the observation that people in a variety of cultures tend to pair up with those who are similar in physical attractiveness. The handsome man and the gorgeous woman date and marry each other, and their more homely counterparts pair up with their plainer counterparts. Similarity in physical attractiveness also occurs in gay and lesbian couples. In everyday language, this is referred to as dating in “one's league”; a person assumed to be unattainable because of being much more physically attractive than oneself is described as “out of one's league.” Occasionally, however, one will see a couple that seems mismatched. He may be older and unattractive. She's young and beautiful. What attracted them to each other? This entry discusses the matching hypothesis, first introduced in the 1960s, to refer to the tendency for people to pair up with others who are equally physically attractive (un-attractive). We also discuss complex matching, which occurs when people are able to attract partners far more physically attractive than themselves by offering compensatory assets—say, status, power, or financial standing.

Original Matching Hypothesis and Classic Dance Study

Elaine Hatfield (Walster) and her colleagues proposed the original version of the matching hypothesis. Based on Kurt Lewin's Level of Aspiration Theory, they proposed that in making dating and mating choices, people will tend to choose someone of their own level of social desirability. Theoretically, people should be influenced by both the desirability of the potential match (what they want) and their perception of the probability of obtaining that date (what they think they can get). Social psychologists referred to such mating choices as realistic choices, because they are influenced by the chances of having one's affection reciprocated.

The researchers tested the matching hypothesis in a classic dance study. In this study, 752 freshmen at the University of Minnesota were invited to attend a get-acquainted dance. When the participants picked up their free tickets, a panel of judges surreptitiously rated the students' physical attractiveness. Also available from either university records or additional measures completed by the participants was information on personality, grade point average, and social skills. The freshmen students were randomly matched with partners. The success of these matches was assessed via a survey distributed during the dance's intermission and in a 4- to 6-month follow-up. Before the dance, the more attractive the student, the more attractive they assumed their date would be. Nonetheless, once participants had met their matches, regardless of their own physical attractiveness, participants reacted more positively to physically attractive dates and were more likely to try to arrange subsequent dates with the physically attractive. Self-esteem, intelligence, and personality did not affect participants' liking for the dates or subsequent attempts to date them. This study, then, did not find any support for the matching hypothesis.

Evidence for the Matching Hypothesis: Follow-Up Experimental Studies

The dance study was criticized as not reflecting the reality of the dating marketplace because in the computer dance setting, there was no or little chance of rejection, at least for the evening of the dance. Follow-up experimental studies were conducted in which college students, in laboratory settings, were asked to react to profile information about “potential dates.” The researchers manipulated the dates' physical attractiveness and sometimes presented bogus information about how likely the date would be to enter a relationship with the respondent. Similar to the findings from the classic dance study, most people—regardless of how attractive they were—reacted more positively to profiles of attractive dates than of unattractive dates. Although learning one could be rejected by a potential date had a dampening effect on reactions to the other, overall the physical attractiveness effect (physical attractiveness of the other highly associated with attraction for him or her) predominated over a matching effect or a concern about rejection.

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