Contrast Effect

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?   Thou art more lovely and more temperate"   William Shakespeare.   Or, shall I compare thee to an airbrushed Vogue supermodel, and completely lose interest?   It's not surprising that in our modern day society we are constantly assaulted by beauty.   We see it everyday in magazines, on television, on billboards, everywhere we turn we see beautiful people—almost to the point of sensory overload.   In fact, according to Trend Research Institute "in the past two decades divorce rates have risen over sixty-eight percent."   What could account for the possible rise in apparent dissatisfaction with one's spouse?   Interesting enough, a psychological principle known as the contrast effect might be adversely impacting our happiness.   The contrast effect is a phenomenon that occurs when one's perception of the differences of two things is exaggerated depending on the order in which they are presented.   For example, "if you lift a light object and then a heavy object, you will judge the second object heavier than if you had lifted it first or solo"   (Levine 41).
Moreover, the contrast effect is impacting people's happiness by unconsciously forcing them to make comparisons between their mates and the images of people they see in the media.   By comparing someone of average looks to someone of extreme beauty, often he or she pales in comparison.   Consequently, the person you are with is judged to be less beautiful, or perceived as less attractive and desirable than they normally would be.   In effect, our perception of our mate is skewed by psychological sleight of hand.  

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Donn Byrne states, "in studies of judgment a consistent finding is that the judged brightness, loudness, pitch, size, numerosity, etc., of various target stimuli is a function of the objective attributes of the target and the stimulus context"   (368-369).   Therefore, we are effected daily by the contrast effect because it shapes how we view our surroundings and how... [continues]

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