Own attractiveness and perceived relationship quality shape sensitivity in women’s memory for other men on the attractiveness dimension

Although memory for opposite-sex attractiveness appears to be weaker when in a relationship, romantic relationship quality varies over time. Here, we tested whether activating concerns about relationship quality strengthens memory for attractive faces, by exposing women to faces manipulated in attractiveness before priming positive or negative relationship quality. We examined the extent to which women could distinguish between seen versus unseen versions (more or less attractive than original) of studied identities (sensitivity in memory). Good relationship quality strengthened hit rate regardless of the sex or attractiveness of face. Women were sensitive to female attractiveness but had biased memories for male attractiveness (e.g. according to psychometric relationship quality). Moreover, attractive women were sensitive to male attractiveness, while their less-attractive peers were more likely to remember women as more attractive and men as less attractive than their original image.