OKCupid's "Mathematics of Beauty" blog

[Zarky]

http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/the-mathematics-of-beauty/

It appears that the more polarizing a woman's looks are on men, the more she gets contacted, as compared with other women of her same overall attractiveness level.

Discuss.

What follows is my take, I have no way of proving it right....

I have a feeling this works for men as well. The guy whom some women think is hot and others think is gross is the guy who gets laid the most, in comparison with the guy that is agreed to be overall "good looking" by all the women.

That is to say, pick a niche look. Some will love it, some will hate it, but the ones that love it will be prompted to action. And this supports my longheld rule: "The more the people who hate you hate you, the more the people who love you will love you."

 

[handle]

It'd be interesting to see if it applies to men in general since the way men/women contact each other on those sites is generally asymmetric.

 

[Zarky]

supposedly they're running the data on how women choose men as well

 

[Ease]

In relation to the megan fox comment, the minority that claim that they dont find her attractive at all, are lying to themselves.

It is reasonable to find a guy who has other specifics that turn him on, and therefore he is less interested in megan than the next man. But the guys who say she is not attractive, you KNOW would jump at the chance if megan fox ever gave him a second look in person.

 

[synergy1]

In relation to the megan fox comment, the minority that claim that they dont find her attractive at all, are lying to themselves.

It is reasonable to find a guy who has other specifics that turn him on, and therefore he is less interested in megan than the next man. But the guys who say she is not attractive, you KNOW would jump at the chance if megan fox ever gave him a second look in person.

Go read the thread on the anything else forum. There you have a stark disagreement on her hotness. I suspect that those who dislike her looks are merely acting in preserving their ego; if I can't land a chick like this, she isn't hot. In this regard, I do not find their finding at all surprising. People rate based upon their own ego which is why nerds are often the most picky when it comes to women. My friends who are virgins are MUCH more critical of hot women than the guys who get laid a lot....but a long shot. Thus if a guy feel he has no chance, a larger distribution in hotness is to be expected when polling a ton of dudes.

What I like about these studies is that they are backed by numbers. Yes, its an online site and there are plenty of reasons to discredit the data...but they have the data in large enough quantities to explore and ultimately support their hypothesis. And as is the case with a good study, letting the data tell the story will often unearth new truths which otherwise would have been presumed incorrect.