If you are in a group full of attractive people you may be considered less attractive
The level of attractiveness that you have can be influenced by the people you hang out with. Yes, this may seem strange but a new study confirms it. If you have less good looking friends, you have better chances of being the one that “shines”.
This study was led by Dr. Nicholas Furl who confirmed that the attractiveness is the same for many people. So what you consider to be attractive is the same for other people. If we take into account all the celebrities, we can all agree who is or isn’t good looking.
Despite this, this new study wants to show how other people see us when we are surrounded by our friends. In order to find out, the researchers showed several photos of people, asking others to rate the level of attractiveness for each one of them. After people responded, the researchers put the same photos next to other photos with people that were considered less good looking. This distraction made people have a different opinion. They rated the people even better looking when the photos were placed next to those that were not that attractive.
When they were presented the attractive person next to the less attractive one, individuals tended to make the attractive person even more good looking. Another finding is that when we are in a crowd, we are judged in comparison to the others in the group.
“We found that the presence of a ‘distractor’ face makes differences between attractive people more obvious and that observers start to pull apart these differences, making them even more particular in their judgment.” says Dr. Furl.
This goes the other way around too. So if you are in a group full of attractive people, you may be considered less attractive and your chances of standing out are lower.
The doctor adds that it is not that uncommon to be judged compared to our friends and relatives when we are around them. People tend to compare the individuals surrounding them in order to have an objective opinion.
The doctor also wants to make more discoveries on this matter, to see more ways in which we are being judged and what makes us look better or not. He mentioned that the things that are important in our society and the characteristics that we are judged by are attractiveness and beauty, but there are little studies on this topic and nothing is sure.
Do you think that the people that surround you make you look better or worse?
Image source: Wikipedia
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