We’ve all seen it: that couple where you automatically assume the guy is a wealthy billionaire and the girl must be a airheaded bimbo without a single brain cell to sneeze out of her head. In other words, the guy is the equivalent to a mountain troll with Michael Jackson’s plastic surgeon and the chick is Kate Upton. Why are they together? How are they together? Why can’t YOU score a chick like that when you’re at least five points more attractive than he is?
The answer is simple: they already knew each other before they started dating. According to Metro, a researchers at the University of Texas at Austin found that “those of us who tend to go for quick-fire relationships end up with people roughly of the same level of attractiveness”:
But couples where a ‘10’, say, is going out with a ‘5’, CAN occur – but tend to happen when the couple have known each other well before dating.
The researchers say, ‘A study of 167 couples included measures of how long partners had known each other before dating and whether they had been friends before dating, as well as coders’ ratings of physical attractiveness.
‘As predicted, couples revealed stronger evidence of assortative mating to the extent that they knew each other for a short time and were not friends before initiating a romantic relationship.
‘Because consensus is stronger earlier in the acquaintance process, assortative mating based on attractiveness should be stronger among couples who formed a relationship after a short period rather than a long period of acquaintance.’
Translation: couples where one partner is significantly hotter than the other typically happen in very long-term relationships, including the time prior to when they started dating.
Translation THE SEQUEL: that hot girl you’re friend-zoned with? Yeah, looks like you possibly still have a chance.
[H/T Metro]