Do Men Really Find Blondes More Attractive?
I watched the episode Do Men Prefer Blondes? In the episode the researchers were testing whether men are more attracted to blondes, when compared to brunettes and red-heads. They selected nine different women and had them each put on a wig in all three colors. Nine different men came in for each of the three trials and speed dated with the nine women. Then the men rated the women based on attractiveness and likability. The researchers concluded that hair color did not matter.
One of the strengths of the study was that they had three trials to ensure the results were accurate. Multiple trials are important because having only one trial can create biased outcome, which can lead to inaccurate conclusions. They also had each girl change their hair color which eliminated biased opinions of the women.
A weakness of this research is that there was no hypothesis. Without a hypothesis the audience did not know what was being tested. The hypothesis should have been a statement of what they thought the outcome of the experiment was going to be. If they believed that the men would find the blondes were more attractive the hypothesis could have been “Men prefer blonde women over brunettes and red-heads”.
Another weakness was that the researchers are testing two variables. They had the men rate the women on attractiveness and likeability which creates inaccurate results. Instead of men rating on a single quality they rated the women on two qualities. For this reason, the audience did not know which quality swayed the men’s overall rating of the women. Some men may have valued likeability over attractiveness. Each man had three minutes to talk with the girls, which would be enough time to judge personality, and additional features, such as facial characteristics, could influence their choices, not just hair color. Overall, there was no way for each individual to justify their specific rating. Overall, attraction goes beyond hair color. To isolate hair color, the men should have rated the women upon walking into the room. This would have eliminated personality and likeability factors.
Ariana's Blog 
Hi Ariana! I watched this MythBusters video too, and thought it was fascinating. I think behavior analysis is so intriguing because it allows the researcher to study people in what could be a natural scenario. I agree with you in that there were both strengths and weaknesses to their research methods. Replicating a study, as they did three times, helps to make results more concrete. Another strength that you pointed out was how each of the women in the experiment had their wigs swapped for either red, blonde, or brunette throughout the three rounds. I think this is an especially good method because the results will tell the researchers that the man has a specific preference of blonde hair for the same women who he had already seen in two other shades.
I would like to point out that the two variables in question, attractiveness and likeability, may have been used to find additional correlation between the hair color. Say, if there was a real preference for any color, it could be understood more by comparing the ratings of attractiveness and likeability. If the men rated blondes as 100% attractive, they may rank their likeability very high as a function of their perceived attractiveness. The same could be said if there was a hair color that they preferred the least. In this case, since the ratings for attractiveness and likeability barely varied across hair colors, we can infer that the men don’t have a preference. The point you made is valid; if the MythBusters wanted to know if men prefer blondes only in their hair color, they could have taken a different approach and had the men form a rating off of only seeing the women. That way, the result would be a true indicator of a preference for a certain physical trait.
Overall, I think the methods of the MythBusters’ experiment worked well. There are methods in which they could improve upon, but as you pointed out, there are strengths that make for a quick and efficient experiment.
Furthermore,
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