The Ugly Man Out

Steve carter from eHarmony labs addressed the recent study which showed attractive husbands were less supportive. The hypothesis is that less attractive men are more supportive because they perceive themselves as having fewer options and are more motivated to nurture their wives. However, Carter found that less attractive men weren't necessarily aware of it.

Guys who rated themselves highly on a 1-10 scale tended to be rated by others lower. And you'd kind of expect straight men to rate themselves as sexier—after all they have much more realistic cultural role models than women. Even beefcake men aren't subjected to the same levels of inhuman photoshopping as female models. And actresses.

In the gay community this is probably not as much the case since gay men are judged much more critically on their appearance. But I also wouldn't be surprised if gay men still self-rated slightly higher than average. On True.com guys can rate thier own looks — limiting my search to "attractive" men had no impact on the results.

The problem however, is that a rating scale on its own is subjective and meaningless. I feel like an 8, but what does an 8 really mean? A better way to rate beauty would be to have guys compare themselves as more, less or equal in looks to other men. I think that would yield more honest results. Ultimately that comparison is what I think drives a guy's selectiveness, even though it may not consciously impact his sense of attractiveness.

Also: Commenters on eHarmony's blog are fucking nuts.