Sex Appeal as Persuasion

Transcription

1 Sex Appeal as Persuasion University of Wisconsin Whitewater As human beings, we are hardwired to work both psychically and subliminally towards finding a mate. There are many things that we look for in one another, but I thought it would be interesting to analyze how the human beings conscious and subconscious function as a persuasive tool. There are many facets into how we work as a persuasive vessel as well as how we analyze the persuasive message that someone else is exhibiting through what I believe is a form of the Elaboration Likelihood Theory. To better explain this, the documentary that I have chosen to analyze is The Science of Sex Appeal, which was released in Produced by Adam Fischer for the Discovery Channel, the documentary walks us through aspects of sex appeal and then dives deeper into the science and facts relating to multiple conditions of sex appeal. There are many things that the documentary took into consideration when creating a deeper understanding of sex appeal from physical to material items that add to an individual s personal sex appeal. While being explained the multiple qualities of sex appeal, I then chose where those conditions lie in terms of the ELM. The Elaboration Likelihood Theory of Persuasion was adapted in 1980 and is a duel process theory that aides in the formation of attitudes. There are two routes one can take within this theory. The first is the central route, which is going to be the processing and more thorough function of the two. The second is the peripheral route, which is the process that requires less thought and can be thought of as more of an impulse or first impression. In my analysis, I have chosen to relate the central

2 route in a scientific manner of applied subconscious heuristics and the peripheral route as the conscious way that we come to conclusions about sex appeal. With this, the aspects of sex appeal that I will be examining are the face, the body, and odor. The first part of the documentary is about the human face. With our bodies being used as persuasive tools, the face offers much insight as to how it functions to persuade possible mates to pursue them. From a peripheral stance, things such as a square jaw line on a man, symmetry, and skin clarity all work as a tool in creating an attractive face. Noticing these things takes only seconds and we can immediately choose whether or not we find them attractive. There is not much of a thought process that needs to take place, but subconsciously, in the part of our mind that I find works automatically for us in a central route method, there is much more going on. Our subconscious is thoughtfully considering the make- up of the others face. A square jaw line is considered initially attractive, but subconsciously, your brain is analyzing the square- ness of the jaw due to the fact that the more prevalent the jaw line, the higher testosterone in the male, which would make them a better mate. The symmetry of a face is an expected attractiveness because the more symmetrical the face, the more attractive a mate will be to someone. The subconscious thought behind this though is that with symmetry comes the golden ratio. The golden ratio applies mathematics behind most things around us to not only depict beauty, but health (2/3 s ratio). A face that is seen as unsymmetrical will seem unattractive to us, but is a subconscious red flag that indicates poor gene structure, which can also be a result of poor health or development. Although that wouldn t be an initial thought when looking at a face, given a more in depth look, it would form an attitude

3 about the genetic makeup of that person. Another interesting tool of persuasion used by women on the face is skin clarity. Clear skin is deemed attractive, but a woman s skin while ovulating will become clearer and create almost a glow to persuade possible mates to pursue her. Clear skin is attractive, but subconsciously, the clearer, glowing skin on a female during ovulation is an indicator of a fertile woman. Other than the face, the body is also used as a very persuasive tool. The bodies of the different sexes both work in different ways to persuade people of the opposite sex. The peripheral route would tell us that the way a body moves is going to be sexy; for men that is a sort of swagger and dramatized movement in the upper body, and for women that is a more exaggerated motion in the hips. Researchers found that when asking participants to walk as if they are trying to attract, or persuade, members of the opposite sex on a treadmill, the walks were much different in contrast to a control group that was asked to just simply walk on the treadmill. The men walked with a broader chest and had amplified their shoulder movement. Immediately seen as an attractive and confident strut, subconsciously a woman is analyzing if he is large enough for protection as well as how broad the shoulders are as it is an indicator of high testosterone which further indicates good health. For women, they had exaggerated on moving their hips. Looking at a catwalk, a runway model will do this because the motion is typically attractive and flattering for a female, but subconsciously what is being analyzed is the woman s hips as they are an indication of her capability to bear children, as well as the estrogen that was produced during puberty that would also act as an indicator of good health. Our voices work the same way in the production of

4 testosterone and estrogen in the sense that an appealing voice on a man is deep and low and on a woman it is soft and higher. Subconsciously though, we are analyzing this because it is the production of hormones that make these voices so, and can be used as an indicator of good genes and/or health. The final tool of persuasion I found most interesting that our body uses is that of odor. Natural body odor is used almost as a lure at times to attract members of the opposite sex. What I had found interesting though, is that there is much more than there being a good odor, or a bad odor, which could be seen as taking the peripheral route when interpreting a scent. Our subconscious is actually decoding one another s scent to find out if we should actually pursue one another. Our scents create a MHC hormone, which is the immune systems body odor. When pairing up, men and women are subconsciously deciding whether or not their MHC hormones are a match, for the more similar your hormones are, the more compatible you are. The more different that yours are, if mated, you would produce children with weaker immune systems. Also, you re hard wired to not be attracted to the MHC hormones of family members, as it s unhealthy to mate with them. Overall, I found the message of the documentary to be very intriguing. I appreciate how it takes the general concept of attractiveness, and gives it a deeper meaning. I think where we take into consideration our shallow perceptions (face structure, body movement, and scent) we can most definitely be see that we interpret these characteristics in a peripheral sense. The documentary though adds the deeper meaning, the more evaluative and subconscious thought process, to be related in what I see as a central route of interpretation of sex appeal. I found the

5 message effective because it brings in science to further explain sex appeal and how you can better deduct a better mate. I also thought this would be a perfect documentary to explain the process because it also goes to explain how thousands of years ago, the characteristics and thought processes that deduct them weren t subconscious thoughts and that we have simply evolved enough to make them that way. This means that thousands of years ago, what is a subconscious thought today about finding a mate was what was a conscious thought then. Over time though, we have become hard wired into taking a peripheral route when finding a mate, and our brain now knows how to function in a way to take care of examining these characteristics in a more central route function. From my paper, what I want to be known is that there is more than just rhetoric when it comes to persuasion. Our bodies are tools of persuasion that are used to attract people in hopes they will pursue us. We tone our bodies, exaggerate our walk, and spray ourselves with fragrant scents to attract people, and although it works based on quick interpretations of one another, there is another thought process that is working to analyze more critically if an individual is a good match. By adding the persuasive knowledge on the ELM theory and by relating it to the scientific information on sex appeal from this documentary, I ve been able to understand how aspects of our bodies are used to first create a quick impression and then how those aspects are further used to create a more analytical, evaluative impression.

6 Source Fischer, A. (Producer). (2009). The Science of Sex Appeal, [Documentary] USA. The Incubator