Dont trust the competition: womens responses to mating relevant feedback from same-sex others

Abstract

Appearance derogation is a commonly-observed female intrasexual competition strategy. Accordingly, women may interpret appearance-related feedback differently depending on whether it is coming from a man or another woman. The current research examined the impact of appearance feedback -- given by men or women -- on womens perceptions of desirability as a mate, attractiveness, and mate choice. Women were predicted to respond positively to positive feedback given by men or women. However, because women may be cognizant of the use of competitor derogation as a strategy of intrasexual competition, negative feedback was predicted to only negatively impact womens self-perceptions when it was provided by men. Results provided mixed support for this hypothesis. Experiment 1 found that womens self-rated perceptions of desirability as a mate are lowered after receiving negative feedback from men, but not other women. No consistent results for womens self-rated perceptions of attractiveness and mate choice were found.