Music has the potential to make a man's face appear more attractive when perceived by a woman. It is not mere rhetoric but a study claims that when a woman sees a man while any music is being played, she finds him more attractive and more willing to date him.
A study was undertaken by researchers from the University of Vienna in Austria, which tried to find the impact of music on the evaluation of a person's face by the opposite sex.
"Facial attractiveness is one of the most important physical characteristics that can influence the choice of a partner," said Helmut Leder, from the University of Vienna.
"We wanted to find out how music can alter the perception of this feature," added Leder.
Since time immemorial music holds a special place in the social context. Hence, it can be assumed that the music had some influence in making their facial features attractive, said the researchers.
"There is some evidence in the psychological literature that so-called arousal transfer effects can occur if two stimuli are processed consecutively," Leder said.
Music being the first stimulus produces internal arousal, i.e. increased physiological activity, which is then attributed to the second stimulus which is the appearance of a person's face.
"This mostly unconscious mechanism can then influence our actions, in this case, the choice of a partner," said Manuela Marin, from the University of Vienna.
More about the study:
1) Heterosexual participants were presented with instrumental musical excerpts that varied in their emotional content, followed by a photograph of a face from the opposite sex with a neutral facial expression.
2) They required to assess the face in terms of its attractiveness on a scale and the participants also had to rate their willingness to date the person in the picture.
3) In the control condition only faces without music were presented.
4) There were three groups of participants: women in the fertile phase of their cycle, women in the non fertile phase of their cycle, and men.
5) The musical preferences and musical training, as well as in their mood before the experiment and in their relationship status were kept as constants meaning, it was similar for all.
6) The results showed that female participants rated the male faces as more attractive and were more willing to date the men pictured when previously exposed to music.
7) Overall, highly stimulating and complex music led to the greatest effect compared to the control condition. This effect was not present among male participants.
These results comes with a certain promise and opened up avenues for further research related to the role of music in partner selection in connection with aspects of physical attractiveness.
"Our goal is to replicate these results in a larger sample and to modify some aspects of the experiment. For example, we would like to clarify whether musical abilities and creativity can compensate partially for deficiencies in terms of physical appearance and fitness," said Bruno Gingras from the University of Innsbruck in Austria.
"There are an increasing number of empirical findings showing that music has the power to influence human behaviour with regard to partner selection," said Marin.
"Music can promote social cohesion, and it also plays a role in the mother-child relationship. Until we understand these connections, there is a long way to go," she said.
Further investigation of this front may bring out more interesting facts. The effect of music on various relations can be varied and may hold a vast scope for further research. Till then music tell you how to appear attractive.
(With inputs from PTI)