Contrast Effect

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate" William Shakespeare. Or, shall I compare thee to an airbrushed Vogue supermodel, and completely lose interest? It's not surprising that in our modern day society we are constantly assaulted by beauty. We see it everyday in magazines, on television, on billboards, everywhere we turn we see beautiful people--almost to the point of sensory overload. In fact, according to Trend Research Institute "in the past two decades divorce rates have risen over sixty-eight percent." What could account for the possible rise in apparent dissatisfaction with one's spouse? Interesting enough, a psychological principle known as the contrast effect might be adversely impacting our happiness. The contrast effect is a phenomenon that occurs when one's perception of the differences of two things is exaggerated depending on the order in which they are presented. For example, "if you lift a light object and then a heavy object, you will judge the second object heavier than if you had lifted it first or solo" (Levine 41).

Moreover, the contrast effect is impacting people's happiness by unconsciously forcing them to make comparisons between their mates and the images of people they see in the media. By comparing someone of average looks to someone of extreme beauty, often he or she pales in comparison. Consequently, the person you are with is judged to be less beautiful, or perceived as less attractive and desirable than they normally would be. In effect, our perception of our mate is skewed by psychological sleight of hand.

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Donn Byrne states, "in studies of judgment a consistent finding is that the judged brightness, loudness, pitch, size, numerosity, etc., of various target stimuli is a function of the objective attributes of the target and the stimulus context" (368-369). Therefore, we are effected daily by the contrast effect because it shapes how we view our surroundings and how we judge things.

The contrast effect is of extreme importance. "Psychologists Sara Gutierres, Ph.D., and Douglas Kenrick, Ph.D., both of Arizona State University, demonstrated that the contrast effect operates powerfully in the sphere of person-to-person attraction as well. The contrast effect influences not only our evaluations of strangers but also our views of our mates as well. And it sways self-assessments of attractiveness too" (Levine 41). Seeing images of beautiful people makes us think there's a huge field of opportunities available to us. Therefore, by changing our sense of possible opportunities, the contrast effect forces us to believe that we could always do better, in effect, keeping us continually unsatisfied. "All you have to do is turn on the TV or look at the covers of magazines in the supermarket checkout line to be convinced there are any number of incredibly beautiful women available" (Levine 42).

. "It is a truism that people respond to the world as they see it, not to the world as it really is. The discrepancy between the two is often large enough to make the distinction very important" (Cook 148). So the women that men view in their realm of possibilities are often not a reality for them. So, this leads to many men staying home alone with their fantasies of supermodels in their heads--making them unable to love real women. Moreover, "under a constant barrage of media images of beautiful women, these

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guys have an expectation of attractiveness that is unusually high--and that makes the real people around them, in whom they might really be interested, seem lackluster, even if they are quite good-looking" (Levine 42). In contrast, "if his options for other relations are few (or his "comparison level for alternatives" is low), he may well be attracted to the norm" (Centers 119). This has led Guido Caldarelli, Ph.D., and Andrea Capocci, Ph.D., to introduce a new variable into their mating equations. The variable is what they call the "Vogue factor"--a measure of the influence of beauty present in media on relationships. They found that they more individuals were exposed to the "Vogue factor" the greater people were