Do You See What I See?: A Study of Actual and Perceived Physical Appearance Attitudes in Romantic Relationships

The present research investigated actual and perceived physical appearance attitudes within a romantic relationship. Past research has suggested that people are often inaccurate in perceiving the opposite sex's physical appearance ideals for one' own sex. Ninety-three heterosexual couples completed anonymous questionnaires measuring appearance satisfaction, perceived partner attitudes and effects, relationship satisfaction and sexual satisfaction. Evaluative ratings of appearance were taken from three perspectives — Self, Perceived Partner, and Actual Partner. For both sexes, all three perspectives were significantly different from one another. Regarding the accuracy of perceived partner attitudes about one's appearance, men and women were only modestly accurate and usually underestimated the degree to which their partner's approved of their looks. Women's perceived partner ratings were significantly higher than men'. When actual partner ratings were reviewed, this was in fact the case. For women, relationship and sexual satisfaction were best predicted by how favorably they rated their partner's appearance. Men's relationship satisfaction was associated with how favorably they assumed their partners rated them and how favorably they (men) rated their partner's appearance. Men's sexual satisfaction was predicted by how favorably they thought their partner evaluated them. Also, the Physical Appearance in Intimate Relationships Scale was further validated using couples. Finally, no ethnic differences in body image and appearance evaluations were found. Future research and limitations of the study were also discussed.