Interesting article about "looks" matter.

[ketostix]

http://body.aol.com/news/health/article/_a/looks-matter-more-to-the-good-looking/20080215142409990001

Looks Matter More to the Good-Looking
By Jeanna Bryner,livescience.com
Posted: 2008-02-19 13:13:48

In the world of romance, we seek out partners who are just as "hot" or "not hot" as we are.

A new study supports the idea that super models flock together while individuals lacking the perfect face and body also stick together.
Beautiful people marry beautiful people and less beautiful people marry less beautiful people," said Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at MIT's Program in Media Arts and Sciences and Sloan School of Management.

But that doesn't mean less-attractive people are destined to lives of unrequited love and feelings of just settling for the mediocre. The study results, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science, suggest people who lack looks place more stock in non-physical features, such as sense of humor, than in physical beauty.

Guys, however, are less concerned with their own looks when deciding whom to date, the findings suggest. So while a man might have no qualms about going after someone much better looking than he is, a woman will tend more to choose partners with compatible looks.

Another recent study suggests that, in general, for both men and women physical attractiveness guides cupid's arrow. This research did not account for each individual's own looks.

Hot or Not

What makes for a "hot" appearance? Research has shown that people have essentially universal standards of beauty, including large eyes, "baby face" features, symmetric faces, so-called average faces, and specific waist-hip ratios in men versus women.

Ariely, Leonard Lee of Columbia University's Business School in New York, and their colleagues looked at information from an online dating Web site called HOTorNOT.com, which allows members to rate others on their physical attractiveness.

They focused on a 10-day period in August 2005 to figure out how an individual's attractiveness rating affected how that person rated others' physical attractiveness on a scale from 1 to the hottest value of 10. Then, the researchers compared the average hot-or-not ratings for each person with the number of dating requests.

On average, participants paired up with others having compatible attractiveness. Compared with the ladies, guys were most influenced by physical attractiveness when requesting dates, but their own appearance ratings had less effect on their date choices.

"Males are less affected by how attractive they themselves are than females," Lee said in a telephone interview. Guys were more likely than ladies to request dates out of their league.

Individuals who slid furthest down the hot-or-not scale seemed more desperate, as they were the most likely to respond "yes" to any date requests. For every unit decrease on the 10-point scale of the member's own attractiveness the member was 25 percent more likely to say "yes" to a potential date.

The hot-rated members were choosier, tending to accept only dates from others in their attractiveness neighborhood.

Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder?

The researchers wondered whether beauty standards varied depending on a person's own ******d appearance.

"If I'm less attractive, which I am, and I hang out with less attractive people, you can imagine I start appreciating different things," Ariely told LiveScience. "I [might] start caring less about symmetry and I start thinking more that big ears could be cute. But that doesn't seem to happen."

Regardless of their hot rating, individuals came to the same consensus regarding the hotness of other members.

"Whereas less attractive people are willing to accept less attractive others as dating partners, they do not delude themselves into thinking that these less attractive others are, in fact, physically attractive," they write in the journal article.




To understand how the physically-lacking individuals cope with the cards they were dealt, the researchers conducted a speed-dating study.

At the event sponsored by a Boston-based online dating company, 24 participants indicated how high they rated the relative importance of six criteria - physical attractiveness, intelligence, sense of humor, kindness, confidence and extroversion - for selecting dates. The participants then chatted for four minutes with each potential date, after which they rated each other on physical attractiveness and decided whether to meet up again with that person.

Turned out, more attractive people placed more importance on physical attractiveness above other features in selecting their dates. Less attractive people placed more weight on other qualities, such as sense of humor.

"The people who are less attractive basically switch what they care about and they start caring less about beauty and more about sense of humor," Ariely said.

Another recent speed-dating study, published in the February issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, revealed that the attractiveness of a potential partner is critical, followed by ambition and earnings.

“In other words good looks was the primary stimulus of attraction for both men and women, and a person with good earning prospects or ambition tended to be liked as well,” said study researcher Eli Finkel, an assistant professor of psychology at Northwestern University in Illinois.

 

[iqqi]

The thing about looks is, its all subjective.


What one person finds attractive, another doesn't. I only date model types. But some of my friends wouldn't look twice at these guys!

And the men they choose - GROSS!

But you can't tell us NOTHING. Its all different tastes. Go look at Ultimate Players HB9 girlfriend in the main discussion forum. How many of you agree?

Its all subjective.

 

[ketostix]

The thing about looks is, its all subjective.


What one person finds attractive, another doesn't. I only date model types. But some of my friends wouldn't look twice at these guys!

And the men they choose - GROSS!

But you can't tell us NOTHING. Its all different tastes. Go look at Ultimate Players HB9 girlfriend in the main discussion forum. How many of you agree?

Its all subjective.

Maybe you didn't read the article, or are you disagreeing with it. Of course they're are going to be a few exceptions to the norm. And if we all disagree that Ultimate Plater's GF is a 9, how does that mean it's all subjective:

Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder?

The researchers wondered whether beauty standards varied depending on a person's own ******d appearance.

"If I'm less attractive, which I am, and I hang out with less attractive people, you can imagine I start appreciating different things," Ariely told LiveScience. "I [might] start caring less about symmetry and I start thinking more that big ears could be cute. But that doesn't seem to happen."

Regardless of their hot rating, individuals came to the same consensus regarding the hotness of other members.

"Whereas less attractive people are willing to accept less attractive others as dating partners, they do not delude themselves into thinking that these less attractive others are, in fact, physically attractive," they write in the journal article.

 

[iqqi]

Maybe you didn't read the article, or are you disagreeing with it. Of course they're are going to be a few exceptions to the norm. And if we all disagree that Ultimate Plater's GF is a 9, how does that mean it's all subjective:

I saw that, but I just don't SEE that in real life.

What I do see is much more subjective selection. Sometimes we will all agree on a person being good looking. But rarely will we all be attracted to that person.

And of course there are guys who just aren't attractive to any of us. I will give you that.

Also, about UP's girl, we don't all disagree. Some of the posters find her hot I am sure! It's subjective!

 

[ketostix]

I saw that, but I just don't SEE that in real life.

What I do see is much more subjective selection. Sometimes we will all agree on a person being good looking. But rarely will we all be attracted to that person.

And of course there are guys who just aren't attractive to any of us. I will give you that.

Also, about UP's girl, we don't all disagree. Some of the posters find her hot I am sure! It's subjective!

It's not totally subjective for looks or any other traits like personality. If it were completely subjective there wouldn't be such disparity between people's success with the opposite sex. There wouldn't be any correlations. If it was all subjective there wouldn't be a better way to create attraction, every person would be as successful and unsuccessful as the next.

 

[iqqi]

It's not totally subjective for looks or any other traits like personality. If it were completely subjective there wouldn't be such disparity between people's success with the opposite sex. There wouldn't be any correlations. If it was all subjective there wouldn't be a better way every person would be as successful and unsuccessful as the next.

I honestly don't see your logic there. I object to your ideas of subjectivity!

 

[joekerr31]

there are different types of hot chics, but hot is hot, ugly is ugly.

you can say you aren't into a certain type of hot, but you will still admit that they are beautiful.

i totally DO NOT subscribe to the notion that one person can appear as an hb 10 to one person and an hb4 to another.

its utterly absurd to think this is possible.

 

[iqqi]

there are different types of hot chics, but hot is hot, ugly is ugly.

you can say you aren't into a certain type of hot, but you will still admit that they are beautiful.

i totally DO NOT subscribe to the notion that one person can appear as an hb 10 to one person and an hb4 to another.

its utterly absurd to think this is possible.

Did you see Ultimate Players HB9?

 

[Jitterbug]

Did you see Ultimate Players HB9?

I have, and I think she's attractive, although she's not a HB9 in my book. You're a woman, and women are a lot harsher in criticizing other women's looks than men.

I think most men tend to agree on who's attractive and who's ugly. What we usually disagree on is whether some girl is attractive or super attractive (e.g the 7 v.s the 10).

 

[iqqi]

I don't think his girl is ugly, for the record. She is fine. My point was that I know for a fact that the guys on here would rate her from a 9 (like he did) and way low.

Its subjective.

 

[iqqi]

A shining example of subjective taste.

 

[Latinoman]

Looks do matter.

Even if the guy looks “ugly”, but has a masculine-strong look (such as Benicio del Toro or Clint Eastwood), the fact is…that particular look is attractive to some women.

By the way…”hot super model” don’t necessary date “model type men”. They go for RICH men.

Power and wealth trunks look.

 

[mrRuckus]

I was watching some british documentary or something like that and they were doing tests about looks. The women were choosing men (based on who they would most want to have a relationship with) the same or less attractive than them and giving their reasoning later on as they assumed the hot guy had too much competition for him and he'd be more likely to cheat. Looks like it comes down to self esteem once again. This does seem to be a bit like how i'd rather have a 7 or 8 than higher just because it's too much worry and bother to go higher when 7 or 8 suffices in making me erect.

Anyway, I figure men have higher self esteem, are more used to rejection, in general are more visual anyway, and it's not uncommon at all to see prettier women with less attractive dudes so the guys think "why not me?" Really, just peruse the women on myspace with boyfriends and tell me you don't curse at the monitor saying "WTF ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT UGLY GUY!"

Ever since I shaved my head I've been getting the "i'm so sick of metrosexuals. I like a guy's guy." I became a guy's guy? Not that i was ever metro, but i do have a 'tougher' look now with my hair buzzed.



Yay, i get to pull out one of my favorite Maddox quotes.

Emo: An abbreviation for loser. Emo is the new goth, except goths are still around, so it's becoming almost unbearable.

Metrosexual: A gay guy still in the closet. This word is so contemptible that even the man who coined it has since apologized for being such a douche. I cringe every time I hear this word.

Retrosexual: This word wouldn't exist if "metro" didn't happen to rhyme with "retro." It's supposed to mean the opposite of a "metrosexual," which makes it another superfluous word since we already have a word for the opposite of a metrosexual called "straight."

 

[wayword]

People always bring up the stereotype of the ugly rich guy and the supermodel babe...but that is actually quite rare.

In reality, hot people usually choose hot partners. Just scroll through this site here and you will notice this. Good-looking guys tend to have more partners, and better-looking ones. And the hot women tend to choose good-looking bad boys too.

 

[Luthor Rex]

The thing about looks is, its all subjective.

Had you actually bothered to read and comprehend the study you would see that this is actually not true. There are objective measures for beauty.

Yeah, I know how much that pisses off the ugly people and the self-deluded who want a 'fair' world.

Dream on, siqqi...

 

[ketostix]

Had you actually bothered to read and comprehend the study you would see that this is actually not true. There are objective measures for beauty.

Yeah, this was the main point that beauty has universal measures. This has been demonstrated in several studies. Iqqi spinned it off in a tangent about HB ratings and everything else.
The website Hot or Not is just one good example of proof that people can and are rated high medium and low in attractiveness.

Dream on, siqqi...

Everyone should call her siqqi now lol.

 

[Martin Shabazz Jr.]

I think what Iqqi is trying to say though is that one can be beautiful but not attractive to certain individuals. Beautiful and attractive are not necessarily synonymous.

 

[Rollo Tomassi]

What one person finds attractive, another doesn't. I only date model types. But some of my friends wouldn't look twice at these guys!

"Wouldn't" or "Can't"? Beware of making necessity a virtue. It's amazing how many overweight people tend to have a 'preference' for other overweight people.

Ever wonder why so many guys have "fetishes" for certain types of women? Because those fetishes tend to relate with how successful that guy has been in the past with that particular type of woman in contrast to what type he'd been unsuccessful with prior. I'm still waiting for someone to show me an online dating site that caters to fit, attractive women who have fetishes for Big Beautiful Men.

This article is just basic Social Matching Theory.

Did you see Ultimate Players HB9?

And just for the record, I'm not sure if Ultimate Player (AKA AFC Savior, AKA Skiptomylou - banned) a known troll is really the example you want to be using here.

 

[yogy]

Yeah, I know how much that pisses off the ugly people and the self-deluded who want a 'fair' world.

:yes:

 

[Latinoman]

Siqqi confesed that she is short and weight less than 100 lbs...and now she claims she ONLY dates "model type"? LOL.

Men that are "model type" tend to date "model type" hot women.