To determine how people’s attractiveness influences their selection of dating partners, researchers examined attractiveness ratings of over 16,000 HOTorNOT.com users, their ratings of others, and their responses to meeting requests. Both women (vs. men) and more (vs. less) attractive individuals were less likely to accept meeting requests. Less attractive individuals were willing to meet less attractive others and did so without artificially inflating the others’ attractiveness (i.e., they knew they were less attractive).
Lee, L., Loewenstein, G., Ariely, D., Hong, J., & Young, J. (2008). If I’m not hot, are you hot or not? Physical-attractiveness evaluations and dating preferences as a function of one’s own attractiveness. Psychological Science, 19(7), 669-677. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02141.x
