Social psychology: theories, concepts, and applications

¶ … personal ads placed on the website Craigslist for the Houston, Texas area. Three different types of ads were examined for the article: a woman seeking woman ad, a woman seeking man ad, and a man seeking woman ad. The author examined the ad on several different dimensions to see if the author was offering or seeking a defined list of characteristics in the personal advertisement. The results demonstrated that each of the people placing ads had particular priorities in what they wanted or did not want in a partner, but that there was not a consistent theme in all of the ads. Moreover, the results did not support some of the assumptions that people make about gender. For example, many people believe that men are more worried about whether their partner is physically attractive than women are, however, of the three ads examined, the only one that failed to mention any desired physical characteristics in a potential partner was the man seeking a woman.

In the woman seeking woman ad, the overall tone of the ad conveyed a message that was more specific than any of the actual words that she used. The poster, an attractive woman, put a picture in her ad. She described herself as an attractive woman and made it clear that physicality would be an important part of her relationship. In fact, although she did not specify specific physical characteristics, she made it clear that she was seeking a gorgeous partner. Her request makes sense, given that the matching hypothesis has found support in research. Under the matching hypothesis, "people are attracted to others who are similar in physical attractiveness" (Kassin et al., 2010). Therefore, it seems reasonable that a very attractive woman would seek a very attractive partner. Moreover, it does not seem incidental that she placed a photo in her ad; by putting her own photo in the ad, she helped establish a standard for physical attractiveness. However, her ad also placed an emphasis on emotional characteristics. This emphasis seems to support the equity theory of attraction, she was clearly advertising for a partner where both of them would receive the same types of benefits and share the same types of responsibilities within the relationship (Kassin et al., 2010).

The next ad that was examined was a woman seeking man ad. Like the first ad, the advertiser placed an emphasis on physical characteristics. She was concerned with the respondents' height, age, and race. In fact, she only wanted white men to respond to her ad. Because she was an African-American woman, this meant that she was only interested in an interracial relationship. She engaged in self-disclosure by sharing that she was not attracted to African-Americans (Kassin et al., 2010). This statement, though not explanatory, probably suggests some negative history with African-American men or a positive history with white males and provides information about her beyond mere physical desire. In fact, when reading her ad, she appears to have a jaded view about relationships. She makes it clear that she is only interested in a long-term relationship. She cautions respondents not to respond to her in overtly sexual ways prior to getting to know her, even going so far as to tell them not to send photos of their penises to her. Until reading her ad, the author had not even considered that a person would respond to a personal ad by sending a picture of his penis. The entire attitude of the ad conveys a wariness that may be the advertiser's attempt to invoke the "hard to get" effect (Kassin et al., 2010)

The final ad was a male seeking a female. Interestingly enough, of the three ads, the male poster was the only one who did not seek any specific characteristics in potential partner, other than that she be female. He took a different approach and, instead of describing what he wanted in a partner or in a relationship, he described himself. He seems interested in self-disclosure to let potential partners know who he is (Kassin et al., 2010). He appears to believe that by letting potential partners know who he is, he is more likely to find a partner with similar likes and interests.