A study has found that being rejected by an attractive man actually makes a woman more likely to turn down an unattractive one.
The study which was conducted by psychologists from the University of Toronto suggests that distancing herself from the unattractive man helps the woman retain the idea that she is high status; this would in turn cushion the blow of the rejection.
You might feel that after being rejected by the attractive man, she would fall back to the unattractive man. Findings from this study suggest the opposite.
To conduct the study, researchers recruited 126 single women and created dating profiles for them. The participants were told that these profiles would be viewed and evaluated by two men that they could potentially meet at the end of the experiment.
One of the men had a photo of an attractive man, while the other had an unattractive photo.
After being rejected by the attractive man, the women were more likely to turn down the unattractive one.
This research was published in the Journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science.
According to the researchers: “Participants rejected by the attractive man also derogated the unattractive man even when the unattractive man offered acceptance.”
“Participants who were rejected by one of the men distanced themselves from and derogated him as indicated by less interest in meeting him and lower ratings of attractiveness, responsiveness, and romantic appeal compared to those in the acceptance and control conditions.” They said.
The researchers carried another experiment with 166 women, and still found out the same thing.
“Being rejected by the attractive man appeared to make participants less willing to affiliate with the unattractive man and more inclined to evaluate him harshly,”
“This is consistent with our hypothesis that individuals distance themselves from unattractive others following rejections that call into question their attractiveness.” The researchers concluded.
S.O.Z