“On the other hand, when it comes to actual messaging, women shift their expectations only just slightly ahead of the curve, which is a healthier pattern than guys’ pursuing the all-but-unattainable. But with the basic ratings so out-of-whack, the two curves together suggest some strange possibilities for the female thought process, the most salient of which is that the average-looking woman has convinced herself that the vast majority of males aren’t good enough for her, but she then goes right out and messages them anyway.”
Your Looks and Your Inbox, OkCupid Blog
OkCupid is a dating site run by a bunch of geeks who have been writing some really interesting blog posts about how people interact with each other from a statistical perspective. In the past, they’ve dealt with race and religion and now they’re going straight for how people think of attractiveness, where they sit in the curve, and how that influences their behavior approaching members of the opposite sex. Both sexes appear to be delusional, but at opposite ends of the spectrum—although I do think that the male tendency to go for the hail mary is probably healthier than the female standard of average male attractiveness.
