Attractiveness and Rivalry in Women’s Same-Sex Friendships

Abstract

(from the chapter) In this chapter, we describe research from our lab on attractiveness and rivalry in women's friendships with women. On the basis of previous work showing assortment between relationship partners on many dimensions, our first hypothesis is that female friends assort on physical attractiveness. Under the assumption that women's feelings of envy and rivalry are rooted in competition over attractiveness, our second hypothesis is that women who perceive themselves as less physically attractive than their friend also experience more mating rivalry in their friendship. Because individuals evaluate themselves and others in ways that enable them to maintain positive views of themselves (Tesser & Campbell, 1982) and because women's self-concepts are closely tied to their physical attractiveness (Campbell & Wilbur, 2009), we also hypothesize that women engage in self-evaluation maintenance in the domain of physical attractiveness. That is, we hypothesize that women perceive their own attractiveness and their friend's attractiveness in ways that enable them to maintain positive perceptions of their own attractiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)