If You Want To Date Someone Of Your Hotness Level, Try Going Online
Are you a 10 who is dating a 10? Probably not. Maybe more like a 10 who is dating a 7.
But if you’re one of the lucky ones who’s actually dating somebody as hot as you are, you’ve at least met many a couple where one person is incredibly attractive while the other is not-so-much. Unfortunately, and also maybe fortunately, mixed attractiveness couples are decreasing in numbers. Or that’s what science has to say about it. And it’s all because of dating apps.
Translation: sure, dating apps are shallow, but they result in better matched partners. At least aesthetically speaking.
Multiple studies support “assortative mating,” an idea which assumes that people tend to date and marry partners who are like them in terms of social class, educational background, race, personality, and especially attractiveness. That means that 9s only date other 9s, and that 2s have zero chance of landing 10s!
“We think we have highly idiosyncratic preferences,” psychologist Paul Eastwick has said of dating, “but there’s just no compelling evidence that those preferences [matter] once people actually meet face-to-face.”
That’s slightly true, especially when it comes to couples who are friends before they date. “The longer two people know each other before they start dating, the more likely it is that a 3 will date a 6, or a 7 will marry a 10,” according to priceonomics.com.
In addition, researchers have found intriguing information from an exercise they performed on students at UT Austin. At the start of the semester, they asked students in a class to rate the desirability of their classmates. When the researchers looked at how the students rated one another, they discovered that most of them thought the same people were hot and the same people were not.
Then, at the end of the semester, the researchers asked the same students to complete the same exercise. Many students changed their ratings of one another in regards to who was datable. Personality actually mattered overtime. So, uhhh… that’s a relief!
“Perceptions of mate value change the more time that people spend together,” Lucy Hunt has said of the result, adding, “Maybe it’s the case that beauty is partially in the eye of the beholder, especially as time passes.”
WARNING: With each passing day, Americans increasingly marry someone they met on a first date rather than a long-time friend or high school sweetheart. But why? Two words: Dating Apps.
You know, those things where strangers are matched up for dates mainly because of their attractiveness? Yeah, those things! And because many online dating services use algorithms that match people of equal desirability, the mixed-attractiveness couple is heading towards extinction. See the chart below for evidence.
Does matching based on attractiveness level lead towards a more successful marriage? No, not at all. Some researchers have found evidence that it matters; others have discovered the opposite.
So, if you’re looking for a happy and healthy relationship, the attractiveness of your partner may not really matter. And if the mixed-attractiveness couple becomes non-existent, you might not even care. Then again, don’t go dating a complete moron just because he has a 6-pack and a chiseled jawline. Date who you want to date, whether it’s someone you met through a dating app or your real life homie.
Wait actually, chances are your group of guy friends that you’ve cycled through hooking up with your entire life are less hot than your options on Tinder. So maybe… take a dip in the online dating pool. See what happens, because you might just find your matching 10!