The "number scale" of attractiveness

[Phoe]

I've seen a lot of discussions lately about the number scale, and what it means.

 

A lot of it is subjective, and many have discussed how one person's 7 might be another person's 4, and so on.

 

One thing I'm curious about, is how some folks idea of the median level of attractiveness works, along the scale.

 

I imagine some people see it as a bell curve, where there's a middle, and it evenly spreads out between both ends in either direction.

 

Others might see it as a straight diagonal line on a graph, moving upwards evenly.

 

I see it differently. My graph would not be straight at all.

 

Even though 5 is dead in the middle of the graph, I don't necesarilly view that as the "average" number.

 

Women, for example. I personally think the majority of women are a 7 or above. It's rare that I see a woman who isn't cute. It has to be a matter of serious grooming or hygiene failure or something really unfortunate. Otherwise, I think most people are good looking.

 

By looking at it in terms of mean, median, or mode, you get different numbers. And the way I look at it, because maybe 80-90% of women are 7 or up, that seems to raise the average, IMO.

 

Anyone else see it the way I do? Anyone see it differently?

 

I know plenty of people don't believe in numbers, but those that use them, how does your personal scale work?

[NJ123]

I've seen a lot of discussions lately about the number scale, and what it means.

 

A lot of it is subjective, and many have discussed how one person's 7 might be another person's 4, and so on.

 

One thing I'm curious about, is how some folks idea of the median level of attractiveness works, along the scale.

 

I imagine some people see it as a bell curve, where there's a middle, and it evenly spreads out between both ends in either direction.

 

Others might see it as a straight diagonal line on a graph, moving upwards evenly.

 

I see it differently. My graph would not be straight at all.

 

Even though 5 is dead in the middle of the graph, I don't necesarilly view that as the "average" number.

 

Women, for example. I personally think the majority of women are a 7 or above. It's rare that I see a woman who isn't cute. It has to be a matter of serious grooming or hygiene failure or something really unfortunate. Otherwise, I think most people are good looking.

 

By looking at it in terms of mean, median, or mode, you get different numbers. And the way I look at it, because maybe 80-90% of women are 7 or up, that seems to raise the average, IMO.

 

Anyone else see it the way I do? Anyone see it differently?

 

I know plenty of people don't believe in numbers, but those that use them, how does your personal scale work?

 

Unfortunately that just isn't true that most women are 7s. Go use Hot or Not & there's some people with averages like 4.2, or 4.8 out of 10 from 100s or thousands of voters. Not every woman can be considered a 7 unfortunately. Most people don't view overweight women as 7s for instance.

 

To me 0-4 is considered unattractive, 5-6 is average looking, 7 is above average looking, 8-9 is amazing, 10 is perfect. But I suppose it is all in the eye of the beholder though. But in a lot of cases there's some men & women where the majority finds them attractive, and a majority finds some men & women unattractive.

[Gloria25]

I do not consider most women a 7. I consider 5 to be the average looking girl and go from there. I do agree with you when you say that the average looking girl is cute though. Even so, she is still just average looking.

 

Agreed, I think that the majority of men and women are just pretty much "average"...

[Weezy1973]

In all genetic aspects living things have a bell type curve to them. The largest percentage of people cluster around the average and the numbers fade out towards the extremes. This is true of physical attractiveness as well.

 

Just because you're placing an arbitrary value of '7' on the majority of women doesn't mean that bell curve doesn't exist. But if you have a 10 point scale the average would be a 5. Same woman. Just more accurate.

[Eternal Sunshine]

In all genetic aspects living things have a bell type curve to them. The largest percentage of people cluster around the average and the numbers fade out towards the extremes. This is true of physical attractiveness as well.

 

Just because you're placing an arbitrary value of '7' on the majority of women doesn't mean that bell curve doesn't exist. But if you have a 10 point scale the average would be a 5. Same woman. Just more accurate.

 

Exactly. "5" is by definition average on the 1-10 looks scale.

 

Looks are mostly a genetic phenomenon and like other genetic phenomenons (i.e. intelligence, height etc) it follows a normal distribution or bell's curve. This means that around 66% if the people will be within 1 standard deviations of the mean of 5 and around 95% within 2 standard deviations.

[Phoe]

I agree that 5 is the numerical definition of being average, on a scale of 1-10.

 

But because I feel like more people are above a 5, it skews the average up.

 

I don't think the majority of people clump onto the middle, "5", like a bell curve. I feel like people massively clump into the 7 area and spread out from there, with very VERY few dipping below 4 ish.

 

I feel like with proper grooming and hygiene any normal person can look good!

[deathandtaxes]

Number scale lol. So juvenile. Just like who you like and don't worry about this ****.

[Phoe]

Number scale lol. So juvenile. Just like who you like and don't worry about this ****.

 

I don't have any issues with liking who I like, and I'm not worried.

 

I'm just curious how people who use it view it, because several discussions have led me to believe that different people have different views about it.

 

Which, is what I'm seeing in this thread. Different views on how each person views attractiveness, and what a person sees as "average" or not.

 

Not sure how a curious discussion is juvenile, but ok!

[Frank2thepoint]

Women, for example. I personally think the majority of women are a 7 or above. It's rare that I see a woman who isn't cute. It has to be a matter of serious grooming or hygiene failure or something really unfortunate. Otherwise, I think most people are good looking.

 

I have to disagree. I have seen women that could not be rated as a 7. For my taste, they were below a 5, and I could not see myself even going one date with such women, due to sheer unattractiveness for me. But there are many women that I was not attracted to physically, but are really nice people, great to talk with and joke around. To boot, these women had hygiene and groomed themselves to be as presentable as possible.

 

But this whole scale is completely subjective. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Women that I have thought were 7 or above in physical looks, were unattractive due to their poor and shallow personalities. On the flip side, women that I found to be average physically, were really attractive to me when their personalities intrigued me, even aligned with mine. But the scale does not account for emotion, making it very subjective. A person that is hot one day, can be ugly the next, just from how people view them.

 

As for my personal scale, I am quite an open minded man, and often give a woman a chance, sometimes to my detriment. Love is truly blind, once feelings get involved.

[deathandtaxes]

I don't have any issues with liking who I like, and I'm not worried.

 

I'm just curious how people who use it view it, because several discussions have led me to believe that different people have different views about it.

 

Which, is what I'm seeing in this thread. Different views on how each person views attractiveness, and what a person sees as "average" or not.

 

Not sure how a curious discussion is juvenile, but ok!

 

The discussion is not juvenile. Just using a number system to rate people is. It's very degrading imo and a bit absurd. Do you go around rating your friends on a friend number scale? Bob is a 6.5 Sue is a 5.0? Hahahaha.

[Phoe]

The discussion is not juvenile. Just using a number system to rate people is. It's very degrading imo and a bit absurd. Do you go around rating your friends on a friend number scale? Bob is a 6.5 Sue is a 5.0? Hahahaha.

 

Of course I dont rate my friends. All my friends are good people, and if they weren't, then they wouldn't be my friend. Simple.

 

I never said the number scale was some glorious gold standard method. But the truth of the matter is that it's widely used and widely known. Because of that it's worth discussing.

 

I like understanding how different people think, and seeing different ways of how people view attractiveness is fascinating.

[TouchedByViolet]

Women in their 20s definitely average at a 7. If you include all adult women alive then it is a 5.

[Anela]

Women in their 20s definitely average at a 7. If you include all adult women alive then it is a 5.

 

And men with this sort of attitude, rate lower than a 5.

[most_distant_galaxy]

I only have two scales for men, "handsome" and "don't care about looking twice". Why would I need others? This is an honest question, what's the use except for having fun with friends when bored?

[ThaWholigan]

I agree with deathandtaxes actually - I find the whole attractive scale thing to be juvenile and quite ugly aswell. If I could rate the attractive scale out of 10, it would be a 2 .

[veggirl]

7 should be removed from this scale. EVERYONE says they are a 7.

[Rejected Rosebud]

I agree with those who think it's stupid and useless, I'm not kidding, I can't even wrap my mind around it. Sure I think there are people who are almost superhumanly gorgeous, those who are very attractive, good looking but not hot, plain, ugly, etc, but the ranges between all of those is so huge and varied that there is no way of assigning a number, I just don't get it!!

[serial muse]

7 should be removed from this scale. EVERYONE says they are a 7.

 

oh my god, so much this.

 

I think we should just change the scale to from 7.0 to 7.9

 

:lmao:

[Rejected Rosebud]

I'm a 143.o3

[ASG]

7 should be removed from this scale. EVERYONE says they are a 7.

 

What?? Nonsense!! I'm at least a 9! :lmao:

[Frank2thepoint]

7 should be removed from this scale. EVERYONE says they are a 7.

 

My number is not on the scale. I feel cheated that I have been reduced to a number below 11.

[xxoo]

I agree that 5 is the numerical definition of being average, on a scale of 1-10.

 

But because I feel like more people are above a 5, it skews the average up.

 

I don't think the majority of people clump onto the middle, "5", like a bell curve. I feel like people massively clump into the 7 area and spread out from there, with very VERY few dipping below 4 ish.

 

I feel like with proper grooming and hygiene any normal person can look good!

 

This just shows how absurd the number thing is. Average applied to a number scale is 5, but that sounds unattractive due to the way people throw around 5 as a negative.

 

The average person IS attractive. Otherwise, the human race would have died out long ago.

 

But everyone wants to be special, and higher than a 5. So we mentally start "normal attractive" higher.

[serial muse]

My number is not on the scale. I feel cheated that I have been reduced to a number below 11.

 

I'm an imaginary number.

[Haydn]

I'm pretty much knockout.

[xxoo]

I'm an imaginary number.

 

I'm a variable. With an exponent.