Latest news with #attractiveness
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
Men really are 'punching' on dating apps! Blokes pursue women who are more attractive than themselves, study confirms
Ladies - if it feels pretty bleak on the dating apps at the moment, scientists might have worked out the reason why. An analysis of online dating sites has revealed that men tend to 'punch' above their attractiveness level when it comes to swipes. Researchers discovered that overall, successful matches were more likely to occur between people with similar levels of desirability. But this means that men have likely ended up settling for someone who they were initially less interested in - after being rejected by more attractive options. 'Women nominate on average slightly less desirable mates, and men send ties (swipes) to women who are on average considerably more desirable than themselves,' the researchers wrote in the journal Plos One. 'Our research…shows that while men often aim high when choosing whom to contact, successful matches tend to happen between people with similar levels of desirability. 'This pattern is largely the result of rejection, rather than an initial preference for similarity.' The findings could shed some light on the success of certain male celebrities including Jay Z, Barry Keoghan and Pete Davidson - all of whom have dated women that many consider to be more attractive than them. The research was carried out by a team from the Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich, in Germany, and the University of Manchester. For their study, the team analysed data on nearly 3,000 heterosexual users of a Czech dating app, including swipes and desirability. Desirability was calculated by working out who received the most swipes. Women tended to rank more highly in this hierarchy, they discovered, largely because the app had many more male users than female ones. Overall, they found that men were more likely to pursue women who ranked as more desirable than them. 'Men tend to send ties (swipes) to women who are on average considerably more desirable than themselves,' the team wrote. 'All these findings together point toward the presence of aspirational pursuit among men, but not among women.' The analysis also revealed a huge discrepancy between how many swipes a person received, with certain individuals receiving triple the average amount of swipes. While some users sent almost no swipes, some were highly active when searching for a partner. The researchers said women's willingness to 'partner down' should be taken with a 'grain of salt' due to the low variability in how desirable men were. Previous research has suggested that married couples often share similar characteristics - such as age, ethnicity or political ideology. Scientists have also found that men and women are good at judging their own attractiveness, and tend to marry people who are similarly attractive. This suggests people largely date and marry people in our own 'league' - as far as beauty is concerned - experts from the University of Florida said. HOW CAN YOU CHECK IF YOU ARE BEING CATFISHED? Dating apps and online websites are plagued with fraudulent profiles, known as 'catfishes'. 'Catfishing' originated as a term for the process of luring people into false relationships, however, it has also come to encompass people giving out false information about themselves more generally. These profiles often use images of another person to allow users to pretend to be someone else in order to get a date, or scam money from a lonelyheart. Fortunately, there are certain ways to check if these profiles are real people or if they are bogus accounts — 1. Google reverse image search This is probably the most valuable tool for catching out a catfish and can be done via Google. To kickstart the process, people need only right-click the photos that are arousing their suspcions, copy the URL and paste it into The search engine will search to see if the image has been used elsewhere. If you find the picture associated with a different person to the one you're speaking to on your dating app, it's likely you've met a catfish! 2. Use an app called Veracity It is useful for dating sites such as Tinder, Bumble and Grindr as it allows images from Dropbox or Camera roll (or similar) to be cross-referenced against any matching results. Load the app, then select a screenshot of the suspicious dating app profile from your camera roll to launch the search. The app will tell you if the picture belongs to somebody else. 3. Check their Facebook Almost everyone who has a profile on a dating site will have a Facebook account (most dating apps require users to have one, after all!) so it is always advisable to track down your potential suitor on other forms of social media. 4. Google them Google and other search engines have an extensive repertoire and most people will crop up in a search. In this day and age, it's unusual for someone to have nothing on Google. Have a search through for them or their relatives, things they've said or posted in the past. If there's nothing, that should raise alarm bells. For prospective romantic engagements, seeing the face of someone you are virtually talking to is essential. 6. Money This is probably a scam and should provide immediate red flags.
Daily Mail
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
AI map blasted for ranking restaurants with attractive customers
A new interactive map claiming to rank the 'hottest' customers at thousands of restaurants in New York City is facing backlash. The project — created by 22-year-old San Francisco-based programmer Riley Walz — uses AI to analyze millions of Google Maps reviews and assign attractiveness scores to diners. His website, LooksMapping, aims to reflect what he calls society's own superficial habits. In his latest project, titled 'Finding Which Restaurants the Hottest People Go To,' Walz processed around 2.8 million reviews from 9,834 restaurants across NYC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The data powers a heat map that highlights venues based on the perceived attractiveness of their patrons — sparking controversy over its premise and ethics. Now, the 'official' results for the Big Apple are in. Urbani Midtown takes the top spot, ranked as the restaurant with the most consistently 'hot' diners. At the other end of the scale, Jimbo's Hamburger Palace in Harlem came in last, labeled as attracting the 'least hot' foodies. While the rankings may seem shallow, the site isn't just a beauty scorecard. Instead, it aims to reflect how society — especially in major cities — assigns value based on appearances. 'The model is certainly biased. It's certainly flawed,' Walz himself wrote on the website. 'But we judge places by the people who go there. We always have. And are we not flawed?' he added. 'This website just puts reductive numbers on the superficial calculations we make every day. A mirror held up to our collective vanity.' The one-dimensional interactive map spans the entirety of New York City's grid, displaying thousands of color-coded pins strategically placed across the city's vast network of restaurants. It uses a scale from 1 to 10 - with 1 representing eateries frequented by the 'least hot' diners, marked in shades of blue, and 10 representing those with the 'hottest' patrons, highlighted in firetruck red. By clicking on any of the pins, users can view a restaurant's rating along with three additional metrics: a scale indicating how 'hot' its diners were ranked, an age range distribution of patrons and a gender breakdown showing whether the crowd skews more male or female. But it raises an important question: how exactly was it determined who qualifies as 'hot' or 'not'? Walz used a computer model to scrape 2.8 million Google Maps reviews, isolating reviewers whose profile photos featured a detectable face - 587,000 profile images from 1.5 million unique accounts in total, as reported by The New York Times. Those profile photos were then analyzed using a set of descriptive phrases designed to assess attractiveness, as well as age and gender. The phrases included: She is attractive and beautiful, he is attractive and handsome, she is unattractive and ugly, he is unattractive and ugly, a young person and an old person. Relative attractiveness scores were then calculated for each reviewer, though Walz confessed to the NYT that 'the way it scored attractiveness was admittedly a bit janky'. The AI model appeared to favor superficial or arbitrary details when gauging attractiveness - for example, a profile photo of someone in a wedding dress might be rated as 'hot', while a slightly blurry image could result in a lower score. 'The model isn't just looking at the face,' Walz told the NYT. 'It's picking up on other visual cues, too.' According to the data, the top five Manhattan restaurants with the 'hottest' diners -each earning a perfect 10/10 - are Urbani Midtown in Midtown East, Shinn WEST in Hell's Kitchen, KYU NYC in NoHo, Aroy Dee Thai Kitchen in the Financial District and Thai 55 Carmine in the West Village. Urbani Midtown describes itself as offering 'the best Georgian food in a casual and friendly atmosphere that will make you feel like you are eating in Georgia', according to its website.'
News.com.au
04-07-2025
- Health
- News.com.au
Scientists reveal the ‘perfect' male body type
It's a great day for those with a 'dad bod,' because according to a new study, it's the body type women find most attractive. Forget chiselled abs and ultra-lean physiques, researchers have found that 'dad bods,' with their softer edges and a bit of extra padding, are actually the gold standard for male attractiveness. The study, published by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Personality and Individual Differences, even put forward theories as to why people with this kind of physique are the most appealing. The study methodology The study involved 283 participants from China, Lithuania, and the UK. Each person was shown 15 black-and-white photos of men with different body mass indexes (BMIs). BMI is a calculation that uses height and weight to determine whether someone is underweight, of a healthy weight, overweight, or obese. The photos included men with BMIs ranging from 20.1 to 33.7. Faces were blurred to focus solely on body shape, and participants were asked to rank the images from least to most attractive. The results showed that the most appealing male bodies had a BMI between 23 and 27. Specifically, peak attractiveness was linked to a BMI of 23.4 in China, 23.0 in Lithuania, and 26.6 in the UK. For context, in Australia, a 'healthy' BMI for adults generally falls between 18.5 and 24.9, with those between 25 and 29.9 considered 'overweight'. Therefore, the most attractive bodies weren't those who were skinny or very lean, but rather those with a few extra kilos. What this means Although the physical findings are interesting, the researchers were more intrigued by the 'why' behind the results. 'Body fat (adiposity) may be important because it is linked closely (inversely) to circulating testosterone levels and is therefore a better indicator of mate 'quality',' the researchers said. Basically, a mid-range BMI aligns with optimal survival and reproductive fitness. 'The most attractive BMI in males was close to the predicted level maximising survival,' the study explained. So, if you've been skipping the gym for the occasional pint and schnitty, science suggests you might be onto something. But for women, the same can't be said. The researchers found in earlier work that males who judge females believe that being thinner than the 'evolutionary optimal' is more attractive. So while women might pick a partner based on their evolutionary advantages, men mainly just care about how their partner's look.
Daily Mail
02-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Scientists reveal what the perfect man's body looks like - and it's good news for men with dad bods
It's a question that has puzzled men around the world for centuries. What do women really want? Now, scientists may have finally found the answer - at least in terms of male physique. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have uncovered the body type that women find most attractive. And their findings will come as good news for men with 'dad bods'. According to the research, the most attractive body mass index (BMI) for men is between 23 and 27. At the higher end, that's actually classed as 'overweight' by the NHS. 'Body fat (adiposity) may be important because it is linked closely (inversely) to circulating testosterone levels and is therefore a better indicator of mate "quality",' the researchers wrote. Ideas about the 'perfect' female body have changed hugely through the years. For example, in the 1950s, weight gain tablets hit the shelves as women aspired to look like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, while the 90s saw ladies lusting after a thin, androgynous look dubbed 'heroin chic'. However, until now, there have been few studies focusing on the perfect male body. 'Less attention has been paid to the key features driving physical attractiveness of males,' the researchers, led by Fan Xia, wrote in their study, published in Personality and Individual Differences. To get to the bottom of it, the researchers enlisted 283 participants from three countries - China, Lithuania, and the UK. The participants were shown 15 black-and-white images of men ranging in size from BMI 20.1 to 33.7, whose faces had been blurred. The participants were asked to rank the images on a scale from one (least attractive) to nine (most attractive). The results revealed that peak attractiveness corresponded to a BMI of 23.4 in China, 23.0 in Lithuania and 26.6 in the UK. For reference, the NHS classes a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 as 'healthy', while a BMI of 25 to 29.9 puts you in the 'overweight' category. 'We did not find any large cultural differences in the preferred adiposity, despite the fact there are large differences in the baseline obesity levels in the countries we included and hence big differences in the exposure to individuals with higher body weights,' the team explained. You might think that men would lust after a more trim physique. However, the results showed that both male and female participants preferred bodies with a BMI of between 23 and 27. 'This is probably because it is evolutionarily advantageous for males and females to perceive attractiveness in their own populations in the same way, and most studies including ours indicate this is the case,' the team added. The findings will come as good news for men carrying a few extra pounds. However, the same can't be said for women - as previous studies have shown that men prefer ladies with slimmer physiques. 'Females appear sensitive to adiposity in a manner consistent with evolutionary expectations,' the researchers concluded. 'In contrast earlier work shows males judge females who are thinner than the evolutionary optimal as more attractive.' HOW HAVE IDEAS ABOUT THE 'PERFECT' FEMALE BODY CHANGED? Perceptions of the ideal female body can be linked to representations of women in media, whether found in pop culture, fashion or even politics. These images of feminine attractiveness have changed significantly over the years. 1910 The Gibson Girl - An image produced by American graphic artist Charles Dana Gibson depicted the ideal female figure as tall and regal with an S-curve torso shape 1920 The Flapper - Cultural change sparked by the suffragette movement gave birth to short hair, knee length dresses and a more rambunctious, yet petite, view of female beauty 1950 The Hourglass - Voluptuous curves became important following the end of WWII, which also saw the creation of one of the most influential female bodies, Barbie 1960 The Twig - British cultural icon and model Twiggy brought forward an androgynous look in female ideals where small breasts and thinness were key
Daily Mail
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The most attractive heights for men and women is revealed - but how does yours stack up?
Short single men around the world are devastated by the recent news that Tinder is to introduce an experimental filter within its Premium Discovery setting section, for users to specify their desired minimum and maximum heights. But is it really over for so-called 'short kings'? Experts revealed the most attractive heights for both men and women and surprising research showed that the most attractive height's quite a bit taller than the average height of the UK population. At 6ft 1in, Henry Cavill, Bradley Cooper, and David Tennant were right on the mark, while others like Barry Keoghan, Maya Jama, and Anna Taylor-Joy at 5ft 8in were too short - with the women classed as too tall for the taste's of the average man. Just right: Scientists have revealed that the ideal height for a man is 6ft 1in, much like Superman actor Henry Cavill WHAT IS THE MOST ATTRACTIVE HEIGHT? Determining the exact 'most attractive' height is not an easy task because there are lots of factors that affect height preferences. However, there are a few common factors that allow us to determine the heights that will be most attractive to the average person. Professor Gert Stulp from the University of Groningen said: 'One's own height has a strong effect on one's preferred height.' In a study of 5,782 speed-daters, Professor Stulp found that women preferred men who were on average 9.8in taller than themselves. Men, on the other hand, preferred women who were on average 3.1in shorter than themselves. While ideal tallness varied from person to person, the average height of the population was used to work out an estimate of the ideal one for dating. Given the average woman in the UK's 5ft 3in, a man who's 6ft 1in would be the preferred height for the largest number of English women. Male celebrities at this optimal height include Keanu Reeves and Channing Tatum while Chris Hemsworth, Jeff Goldblum, and President Donald Trump would all be considered too tall by the average woman. Likewise, based on an average male height of 5ft 9in, a woman at 5ft 5in would be the most attractive for the average man in the UK. While Olivia Rodrigo's the optimal height for dating at 5ft 4in, Lily Allen and Kim Kardashian at 5ft 2in would both be too short. However, it's important to bear in mind that's just a general rule based on the average. Professor Stulp maintained that there could not be any single perfect height because 'height varies considerably across populations and because there are large individual differences'. For example, studies have shown that women with higher self-perceived attractiveness tended to prefer men who were significantly taller than themselves. Similarly, shorter women and taller men both typically prefer a bigger height difference between them and their partners than taller women and shorter men. DOES HEIGHT MATTER IN DATING? On the shorter side: Studies show that men prefer women to be shorter than themselves, such as Demi Moore and Emma Watson at 5ft 5in With the test of the new Tinder optional height filter, within the Premium Discovery section of the app's settings, the tool allowed users to specify the heights of their preferred matches. While Tinder did not widely announce the new tool, it confirmed that it's currently testing the paid option. A spokesperson said: 'We're always listening to what matters most to our Tinder users - and testing the paid height preference is a great example of how we're building with urgency, clarity, and focus.' CELEBRITIES WHO ARE THE PERFECT HEIGHT, ACCORDING TO SCIENCE MEN - 6ft 1in Henry Cavill Bradley Cooper Channing Tatum WOMEN: 5ft 5in Demi Moore Billie Piper Emma Watson On social media, the news of the new tool sparked controversy with some claiming it was 'over for short men'. While many have embraced the option to filter by height, Professor Stulp agrees that this will 'reinforce the idea that height is important in mate choice' and 'affect patterns of matching'. Professor Stulp says: 'With Tinder, there is an endless pool of candidates, and one has to constrain one's search heuristics. 'Things like height and age are easy things to restrict on because they can be summarized in numbers. It would be hard to set such restrictions regarding, for example, humor.' CELEBRITIES WHO ARE TOO SHORT, ACCORDING TO SCIENCE MEN Ncuti Gatwa Robert Downey Jr Barry Keoghan WOMEN Lily Allen Kim Kardashian Sabrina Carpenter WHY DO PEOPLE CARE ABOUT HEIGHT? Some theories suggested that height remained important for women because of evolutionary pressures in our distant past. Historically, height was associated with favorable traits like status, health, and strength, which would ensure more success for offspring. While those factors might no longer be important for our survival, the preference for them might still linger in our psychology. However, Professor Stulp pointed out that some hunter-gatherer or pre-industrial societies had less strong height preferences. Likewise, it did not explain why men would be more attracted to smaller women. Professor Stulp says: 'I think the best answer is that males and females from any species prefer traits that are typical of the other sex. 'Because men are on average quite a bit taller than women, taller height is more a "male trait" and shorter height more a "female trait".'
