Describe the factors that cause us to be attracted to another person. How do these factors differ for women and men?

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The Answer is The answer should include the following information: Several factors cause us to be attracted to another person, including situational factors, physical factors, and psychological factors. (1) One of the best predictors of any type of relationship is the physical proximity of the people involved. Degree of proximity can be seen in the mere exposure effect, which is the increased tendency for liking with the frequency of exposure. Being exposed to certain people causes us to feel familiar with them and then increases our liking of them. Close proximity not only provides the opportunity for attraction, but it also provides the motivation because people naturally work hard to like those with whom they expect to have social interactions; (2) Physical factors also play a big part in attraction. Research has shown that physical attractiveness is typically the only attribute that initially influences people's feelings of attraction. Physical beauty isn't important in just an interpersonal context. People who are deemed beautiful have more friends, more dates, more sex, and more fun than people who are less attractive. The effects of physical attractiveness can also affect how mothers treat their own children: Mothers of attractive children are more affectionate and playful with their children than mothers of less attractive children. However, although men and women are equally influenced by the attractiveness of their partners, men are more likely than women to acknowledge the fact; (3) The physical factors that people find attractive differ for women and men. Perhaps the most obvious difference is body shape. Women prefer men with an inverted triangle shaped upper body, and men prefer women with an hourglass figure. These body shapes relate to testosterone in men (which correlates with social status) and estrogen in women (which correlates with fertility). Although both men and women prefer symmetrical faces and bodies, men find a "baby face" on a woman especially attractive and women prefer men with a more mature face; (4) The last factor that plays into attractiveness is psychological factors. People's inner qualities, personalities, points of view, attitudes, beliefs, values, ambitions, and abilities play an important role in determining their interest in one another. Some of the qualities that are seen as consistently attractive include sense of humor, intelligence, sensitivity, and ambition. Although these qualities are attractive, we typically interact with people whose standing on these dimensions is similar to our own. We each tend to marry a person with a similar level of education, religious background, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and personality; (5) From an evolutionary perspective, the feeling that we call attraction is a way for our genes to tell us that we are in the presence of a person who has both good genes and the propensity to be a good parent.

Describe the Factors That Cause Us to Be Attracted to Another