Most people find a partner in their own attractiveness “league” and have a fairly accurate sense of their own physical appeal.
A study, led by the University of Florida, studied nearly 1300 opposite sex couples. The couples had to rate their own attractiveness and their pictures were then shown to strangers to provide an objective assessment.
“Not only were men and women fairly good at judging their own attractiveness, but couples also tended to have similar views of their own beauty,” the study report published in the Personality and Individual Differences academic journal said.
“For example, men who rated themselves as attractive tended to date women who had similar self-ratings.”
Study lead Professor Gregory Webster and his team analysed data from 27 different studies dating back 34 years.
“It’s possible that some aspects of attraction have changed over time, such as with the rise of online dating, where all you have at first are pictures,” Professor Webster said.
“On the flipside, the fundamentals of what humans consider to be attractive across cultures and across time are pretty consistent.”
Some of the studies focused on young, dating couples, while others were concentrated on long-married spouses.
The researchers discovered that, among people who had been together longer, men were more accurate at judging their own attractiveness.
“Men might be getting more realistic,” Professor Webster said. “Nobody’s usually getting more attractive over time.”
More details can be found on the University of Florida website.
