“No matter where you are on the attractiveness scale, there’s always someone out there who finds you attractive,” says Danish researcher Gert Martin Hald.

He stumbled upon this finding in a study on how people respond when strangers chat them up. Hald told Love Matters about his surprising unpublished discoveries at the World Congress for Sexual Health.

For his research, Hald needed to know how attractive the members of his test group were. So he got a panel of students to rate the group's looks – with some unexpected results.

Always hope
“This was something that we didn’t publish,” Hald says. “But basically, if your average score is low – 3 on the attractiveness scale from 1 to 9, where 1 is not attractive at all – there’s always someone who rates you with 7 or even 8. So there’s always hope out there!”

It’s true the other way round too, he adds. “If you’re an averagely attractive person, there’s always someone who would rate you very low.”

Good news, bad news
Hald also found that people who have a high opinion of their own looks find fewer other people attractive.

“On the attractiveness scale from 1 to 9, if you see yourself as a 3, then you might find anybody else attractive who is rated 3 and above. But if you think of yourself as an 8, then you might find only people who are above 7 to be attractive.”

So for people with run-of-the-mill looks, the good news is that there’s always going to be someone who rates you as hot. But the bad news is that they’re not likely to be particularly gorgeous themselves – at least, in their own eyes. 

Big-headed
Women are much more accurate in rating themselves, the research found. They have a much more realistic view of their own looks, while men are more likely to overestimate their own appeal.

This built-in male big-headedness could be down to evolution. It’s handy for men, given that they tend to be the ones who make the first move to hit on a partner, Hald says. “If they didn’t overrate themselves, they might not take the initiative!”

Photo: Flickr/ Paul Stevenson

Are guys more arrogant about their looks? What do you think?