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Comment by potatolicious | Hacker News Reader

I too find statistical confirmation to be interesting, but even moreso is where OKCupid's data have contradicted common wisdom:

- Women rate 80% of males as less than average looking. The graph is completely off-kilter from what you might expect (a pretty usual normal distribution around 50%-attractive)

- The reply rate between sender/receiver attractive is also a really interesting social phenomenon. The unattractive recipient who gets a message from a very attractive member of the opposite sex is unlikely to respond. Self-esteem at work!

I love this sort of statistical drivel (I mean that in the absolute nicest way), it certainly beats reading pop-psych books.

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80% of males as less than average looking

This could be partly due to the fact that especially good-looking men can find a mate easily, so they never get around to registering on a dating site. To the folks on HN it's probably a normal thing, but I believe dating sites still have a certain 'for losers' stigma in other social circles.

And on the other side, perhaps girls that are very picky cannot find a guy to their liking so they end up on dating sites in greater numbers than the average.

If this is true - why isn't it also true in reverse? (i.e., good-looking women can find a mate just as easily, so would not be registered on a dating site).

Because, with all do respect do my fellow men, most guys out there really are assholes... and unfortunately many social norms reinforce they're actions. I've spoken with quite a few females who hope to find someone who isn't an asshole through online services.

To put it another way, what's the probability of a girl finding a quality guy at a bar versus finding a guy who just wants to take her to bed? I know a lot of girls who are sick of that game.

As a result, you get a lot of guys who aren't attractive enough to pick up random chicks at bars and you get a lot of women who are sick of being picked up by the types of guys that make a sport out of picking up random chicks at bars. Those types of girls tend to be attractive. That's not to say that everyone in online dating services falls into one of these two buckets, but that is why you see such weird skews in the data.

okcupid also has a higher than usual amount of people who are in open relationships or polyamorous, so there might be more better looking dudes than you'd expect.

No, that would have the opposite effect.

I'm not trying to make a value judgement based on lifestyle, I'm just saying that not all the men on okcupid are there because they can't find a girl another way.

Women rate 80% of males as less than average looking. The graph is completely off-kilter from what you might expect

It doesn't completely surprise me; it's always been my impression that the average female is more attractive to the average male than vice versa. Although I wouldn't have expected the difference to be so large.

The unattractive recipient who gets a message from a very attractive member of the opposite sex is unlikely to respond. Self-esteem at work!

And the effect is much stronger for males writing to females. I can believe that; an ugly guy who gets an email from a hot girl may suspect it's a setup, but is probably more willing to take the chance.

This would also explain why having multiple wives is much more common than having multiple husbands.

> It doesn't completely surprise me; it's always been my impression that the average female is more attractive to the average male than vice versa.

Average looking != average attractive. If asking a woman about how attractive a man is based only on a photo you will get results like that because you've withheld most of the information she'd use to judge his attractiveness in person.

Depends on the photo. If the photo shows him wearing his expensive watch and sitting in his expensive car, she has most of the information she needs.

My anecdotal evidence is that women go for alpha-ness, not wealth. There's a strong correlation between the two, but it's quite possible to have one without the other. A pick-up artist with no money will attract women, while a well-paid but socially inept geek won't.

Total agreement. That's the beautiful thing about metrics. Anybody can convince you of what you already believe is true. The real value is when you can demonstrate that reality is different than what you think it is.

- Women rate 80% of males as less than average looking. The graph is completely off-kilter from what you might expect (a pretty usual normal distribution around 50%-attractive)

This is very interesting. It's always been almost impossible to get my gf to point out other guys she finds attractive - this might point towards a reason, although it still doesn't really provide an explanation.

I found this particular comment on the post to be poignant:

"I love that both the males and females are completely delusional but on opposite ends of the spectrum."

Or she doesn't want to wax eloquent about the attractiveness of other guys to her boyfriend?

Actually it's exactly what I would expect. Cue the "96% of the population is undateable" Seinfeld quote!

Asking people to rate who's below average looking will generally result in the vast majority of people being rated as such. Yeah, statistically you'd expect around 50%, but once you throw human emotion into the mix all bets are off.

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