Filters and Standards

2). Think about the filters you use to eliminate people from consideration as potential romantic partners. What characteristics or behaviors lead you to judge others as unattractive? Does Duck's theory make sense to you? Have you ever eliminated someone by using a sociological or pre-interaction cue only to reconsider them based on interaction and cognitive cues?

After thinking over Duck’s theory of attraction, some examples of my own filtering of romantic partners come to mind. In terms of determining unattractiveness as potential partners there are two categories I go by- initial and subsequent. Also, how these two filters relate to Duck’s sociological, pre-interaction, interaction, and cognitive cues.


There are a few characteristics that I use as immediate filters for romantic partners. These result from the initial contact. One is copious amounts of tattoos on the girl. This tells me that she has a mistaken concept of long term-thinking and lives in the moment too much, leaving a tendency to act spontaneously to the point of extreme in a relationship.


Another initial disqualifier is rudeness or disrespect to parents, either theirs or mine. I judge this to be a propensity to how my partner will treat me in the future.


As for subsequent filters, these come a little later and can manifest themselves after going out with this person for an extended period of time. If she is constantly in need of rescue emotionally it may indicate to me that she is not yet mature enough to handle life responsibility.


Secondly, if her spending habits do not match her income it becomes a red flag. Marriage counselors attribute that over half of divorces stem from financial problems. If she cannot reign in her spending then that is a definite filter I abide by.


The initial filters line up closely with Duck’s pre-interaction cue, in that these filters can be employed without even speaking to the girl at all. I can disqualify her from a distance for these things without even interacting with her at all. The subsequent filters align with Duck’s interaction and cognitive cues because these deal with conversations and belief systems. As for the sociological cue, I do not recall when I ever went by this method of filtering.