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Describe and evaluate the theories of attraction and relationship formation (24 Marks) The matching hypothesis (Walster et al. 1996) states that people are attracted to others of a similar level of attractiveness to their own. We are likely to seek out people similar to ourselves in other attributes such as intelligence etc. There are many possible reasons for our attraction to physically attractive people; there is also the potential cost of rejection from someone who doesn't see us as physically attractive. Self -esteem also affects this process e.g. people feeling low in self- esteem is more likely to target someone who's less likely to reject them. Murstein (72) provides supporting evidence for this, in the study; photos of faces of 'steady or engaged' couples were compared with random couples who were just paired for a photo. The results were that real couples were constantly judged to be more similar...

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