title: Implicit and explicit preferences for physical attractiveness in a romantic partner: a double dissociation in predictive validity.
abstract: Five studies develop and examine the predictive validity of an implicit measure of the preference for physical attractiveness in a romantic partner. Three hypotheses were generally supported. First, 2 variants of the go/no-go association task revealed that participants, on average, demonstrate an implicit preference (i.e., a positive spontaneous affective reaction) for physical attractiveness in a romantic partner. Second, these implicit measures were not redundant with a traditional explicit measure: The correlation between these constructs was .00 on average, and the implicit measures revealed no reliable sex differences, unlike the explicit measure. Third, explicit and implicit measures exhibited a double dissociation in predictive validity. Specifically, explicit preferences predicted the extent to which attractiveness was associated with participants' romantic interest in opposite-sex photographs but not their romantic interest in real-life opposite-sex speed-daters or confederates. Implicit preferences showed the opposite pattern. This research extends prior work on implicit processes in romantic relationships and offers the first demonstration that any measure of a preference for a particular characteristic in a romantic partner (an implicit measure of physical attractiveness, in this case) predicts individuals' evaluation of live potential romantic partners.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, TX, USA. eastwick@tamu.edu
authors.forename: Paul W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Eastwick
authors.forename: Alice H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Eagly
authors.forename: Eli J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Finkel
authors.forename: Sarah E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003380:Courtship / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology*; D014936:Word Association Tests; D055815:Young Adult