Testing Equity as an Explanation for Romantic Couples “Mismatched” on Physical Attractiveness

Abstract

According to the “equity theory” of interpersonal attraction, persons having romantic partners higher in physical attractiveness than themselves should have more desirable nonphysical attributes than those having less attractive partners. This hypothesis was tested. As expected, women who had better looking partners had better senses of humor and were lower in neuroticism than women who had partners less attractive than themselves. No significant mean differences were observed on WAIS IQ or dominance but the differences were in the expected direction. These results were not replicated for men, however, as the same statistical tests were nonsignificant and differences were in the opposite direction as often as in the predicted direction. It was suggested that the dynamics of interpersonal attraction are too complex to be adequately explained by the equity model.