Individual items seem more attractive when presented in a group.
<aside> ℹ️ The Cheerleader Effect (sometimes referred to as the group attractiveness effect)is a reaction that causes a person to perceive that others are more attractive when seen in a group than they are perceived when seen as individuals.
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For instance, a woman might look at a photo of a football team and believe that this is an incredibly handsome group of men. However, show her the same individuals as single photos and she will more likely to see their physical flaws and rate them as less attractive. Research is being conducted as to why this phenomenon seems to occur.
The cheerleader effect, also known as the group attractiveness effect or the friend effect, is a proposed cognitive bias which causes people to perceive individuals as 1.5–2.0% more attractive in a group than when seen alone. The first paper to report this effect was written by Drew Walker and Edward Vul, in 2014.
This preference was proved to be shared across cultures. Two parts constitute physical attractiveness, and most former studies investigated underlying mechanisms leading to cheerleader effect specifically in its subset, facial attractiveness. Nevertheless, a study has recognized this effect in another physical appearance indicator, human body perceptions.
The effect size of the cheerleader effect is not modulated by the presentation time, the number of individuals surrounding the target, spatial arrangement of the faces in the group.
Findings of this effect are interdisciplinary in applications. Based on them, mate choice, marketing and social media tactics are designed to increase the attractiveness of a target individual or item via the help of the group.