Have you heard about HOTorNOT.com? It's perhaps the most superficial of all superficial dating site, allowing members to vote on other members' attractiveness and promoting dating decisions based almost solely on attractiveness scores. (You carry your own attractiveness score with you and how hot you are becomes part of your profile.)
Researchers in the science of beauty and human attraction call this a data paradise. Here are some of the things researchers have been able to discover using HOTorNOT.com's magical numbers:
• Men are 240% more likely to accept a date offer than women.
• With each one-point gain in hotness (on a scale of 1-10), a person's chances of being accepted for a date increase by 130%.
• People who are themselves less attractive tend to undervalue attractiveness in others, preferring to instead prioritize personality traits like kindness and sense of humor.
• As you'd expect, people are more likely to accept date offers from people with hotness scores greater than their own. But when the person requesting a date is more than four points hotter than the person being propositioned, the likelihood of acceptance tapers. Is this due to intimidation?
• Members' own attractiveness had no influence on how hot they perceived other members. In other words, less attractive members didn't delude themselves about their dates' attractiveness.
Here's a little male-centric experiment. First, close your
right eye and look at the picture of my new book (at left). And now close your left eye and look at the picture of supermodel Marissa Miller on the right.
Now, as quickly as you can, blink your eyes to alternate between the two images. Repeat for at least 15 seconds. Do you feel strangely compelled to buy Brain Candy?
