What is more important in a potential partner — external attractiveness or character traits? The answer seems to have been found.
Attractiveness is more important1. But if a new acquaintance did not impress at first, after a year of acquaintance, our feelings may change. Psychologists asked volunteers to rate loving couples according to the degree of their external attractiveness. Partners who began an affair shortly after they met earned approximately the same ratings. But for those whose feelings arose as a continuation of friendly relations, the appearance of one of the two seemed to the “judges” less spectacular.
Study author Lucy Hunt believes that our attachment to a person makes him special in our eyes — including outwardly. The one who at first seemed plain to us can eventually become interesting and charming for us (although from the outside it may not be noticeable).
1 Psychological Science, 2015, vol. 26, № 7.