Unless you’re one of those unusually well-balanced people who have completely mature, level-headed relationship with their exes (do those folks even exist?), you’ll probably have an issue or two with your previous beaus.
But if their looks are definitely not one of them, good news – you’re probably something of a hottie yourself.
After all, recent research reveals that most people tend to be attracted to people who look similar to them.
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A 2023 speed-dating study from the University of Queensland and the University of Stirling, published in Evolution and Human Behaviour, showed that people tended to be more attracted to others who had a lot in common with them facially ― even when you account for the fact that, thanks to basic maths, the ‘average’ face is going to look quite a lot like all other average faces.
The study involved heterosexual male and female participants who met with each other, creating a total of 2,285 three-minute speed dates.
“There were 437 Caucasian, 220 Asian, 9 Middle Eastern, 7 African, 7 Latino, and 2 Pacific Islander participants (note: nine participants did not specify any ethnicity, so they were visually classified by three of the authors),” the researchers shared.
After the dates, participants were asked to fill in a form regarding how attracted they were to the other person. Researchers also had photos of all the participants, and assessed how alike each couple looked. They took this into consideration when evaluating the results.
The results showed that no, in general, opposites really don’t attract
Unless, that is, you’re talking about different genders. Women rated masculine male faces higher than feminine-looking ones, and vice versa (again, all participants were heterosexual).
On all other counts, though, it seemed similarity was a massive turn-on for most participants
Dr Anthony Lee, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Stirling, who co-authored the study, said of the research: “We found that, in face-to-face interactions, facial masculinity and femininity predicted attractiveness. We also found that people rated others facially similar to themselves higher. These findings help confirm that results from previous lab-based studies apply in real-life, face-to-face interactions.”
Lead author, PhD student Amy Zhao at the University of Queensland, Australia, added: “These results suggest that people may seek facially similar romantic partners, as they are perceived more kind, understanding and trustworthy due to a potential overlap between facial similarity and relatedness.”