Pupillometry: A sexual selection approach
Section snippets
Study 1: Pupil size preference and sexual selection
In a classic study of pupil size and attraction, Hess (1965) showed that men found drawings of women's faces to be more attractive when the pupils were rendered larger, a finding that has been replicated using various methods Bull & Shead, 1979, Hess, 1975, Stass & Willis, 1967, Tomlinson et al., 1978. Studies that additionally or independently assessed the corresponding responses of women to pupil sizes of men, however, have shown inconsistent results (Bull & Shead, 1979, Stass & Willis, 1967,
Study 2: pupil size and dating partner preferences in women
A second study followed up on the suggestion above. Its first purpose was to replicate the findings for females of the first study with an adequate N for correlational analyses, in order to better establish whether the positive attraction value of large pupils was idiosyncratic to a subsample of women. Second, given that females preferences for large pupils were subject to individual differences, we wished to explore whether they related to particular predilections for personality attributes of
General discussion
Although the predicted distributions of attraction ratings of pupil size by sex of rater and model were only partially obtained in both studies, the broader underlying concept of the studies was supported. As hypothesized on the basis of sexually dimorphic mating strategies, women, overall, did not show the same relative degree of attraction as did men to intense sexual attention signalled by maximally dilated pupils. A subsample of women, however, did find large pupils in male photos most
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