Attributions of Female College Students to Male Photographs as a Function of Attractiveness and Pupil Size

To check on the possibility that relative attractiveness rather than sex of model may have been the determinant of inverse and inverted-U curves observed between ratings of variations of pupil size shown in a male and female model, 170 female students were asked to rate photographs of an attractive and an average looking male model, each of which had been altered to create a continuum of pupil sizes. The results indicated that pattern of mean ratings changed as predicted, as a function of relative attractiveness. This finding identifies a variable which may have partially confounded the results of earlier studies.