Assortative Friendship : Similarity Between Female Same-Sex Friends in Face and Body

Abstract

Because attractiveness is a key determinant of women's desirability to men (Buss, 2003), women's mate-search goals may be better attained by affiliating with women of similar levels of attractiveness. Under this logic, women should develop same-sex friendships with women who are neither much less attractive than themselves (those women discourage male attention) nor much more attractive than themselves (those women steal male attention). It is possible, however, that female friends are similar more in the care they take in their appearance, or in the degree to which they display their attractiveness, than in their objective attractiveness. This study tests that alternative explanation and expands the existing evidence that emerging adult female friends assort on characteristics that are closely tied to mate search and acquisition: facial attractiveness, body attractiveness and body shape.