Elaine Walster, V Aronson, D Abrahams & L Rottman 1966

AIMS: the researchers’ aim was to test the Matching Hypothesis - ie: the tendency for people to seek partners who are at the same level of physical attractiveness as themselves.

PROCEDURE (METHOD): the researchers advertised a ‘computer dance’ for students during fresher’s week at the University of Minnesota. The first 376 males and 376 females were allowed in at $1 each. When they came to sign up for the dance, 4 independent judges assessed  each student’s attractiveness as a measure of social desirability. The participants were seated upstairs and asked to complete a lengthy questionnaire, supposedly for use in the computer pairing. They were told that, on the basis of the data gathered from these, each student had been allocated an ideal partner for the evening of the dance. Actually the questionnaire was used to provide data about similarity and the pairing was done randomly (except that no man was assigned to a taller woman).

The dance was held 2 days later - before which the students were given their dates’ names. During the dance participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire about the dance and their dates. This was done during the intermission when the partners had been together about 2.5 hours.

FINDINGS (RESULTS): the more physically attractive students were liked more by their partners than were the less attractive students. Physical attraction was rated a more important factor than such qualities as intelligence and personality. Liking was not affected by how attracted the other person felt towards the participant. Physical attractiveness was the best predictor (from both males and females) that they would see each other again.

CONCLUSIONS: Since participants liked those who were more attractive, the computer dance did not support the Matching Hypothesis.

CRITICISMS (EVALUATION): the computer dance was not a very realistic test of the Matching Hypothesis because dates were assigned and assessments made before any rejection could have taken place. The interaction was very brief and, therefore, interpersonal assessments had to be based on superficial characteristics.

It also possible that the measure of physical attractiveness used  was unreliable.

Furthermore the participants were students and so the results could only be generalised to a youthful population who were not making long-term romantic choices.

When the researchers asked the students 6 months later whether they had dated their partners since the dance, they found the partners were more likely to have dated if they were similar, rather than dissimilar, in physical attractiveness. This finding does support the Matching Hypothesis.

In 1969 Elaine Walster & G William Walster carried out a repeat of the computer dance - only this time the students met before the dance and were asked to state what kind of partner they wanted in terms of physical attractiveness. Now they found the students expressed greater liking for those who were at the same level of physical attractiveness as themselves. This was thought to be because, having met their partner before the dance, they would have had time to think about what they were looking for in a partner.