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Slightly different meaning. The colloquial idiom of an "average" face is one that is unremarkable in a crowd, one of median attractiveness. Taking the average o

by ijk 13y ago

Slightly different meaning. The colloquial idiom of an "average" face is one that is unremarkable in a crowd, one of median attractiveness. Taking the average of all of the faces in that crowd results in a face that has median features, but measurably higher attractiveness. Reality can be counter-intuitive.

chrischen 13y ago
But supposedly what's defined as average is someone who's features look like most other people. So by definition, the good looking should be a plurality in the population right? That's probably a good thing, otherwise most of the population would end up with people they think are ugly.
- jonahx 13y ago
  The good looking are certainly not a plurality. JERRY: Elaine, what percentage of people would you say are good looking? ELAINE: Twenty-five percent. JERRY: Twenty-five percent, you say? No way! It’s like 4 to 6 percent. It’s a twenty to one shot. ELAINE: You’re way off. JERRY: Way off? Have you been to the motor vehicle bureau? It’s like a leper colony down there. ELAINE: So what you are saying is that 90 to 95 percent of the population is undateable? JERRY: UNDATEABLE! ELAINE: Then how are all these people getting together? JERRY: Alcohol.
- ijk 13y ago
  Again, different meanings of "average": median attractiveness vs. balanced, symmetrical facial features. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averageness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averageness Also, if you believe OKCupid Trends, "2/3 of male messages go to the top 1/3 of women" and "women rate an incredible 80% of guys as worse-looking than medium": http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-looks-and-online-dating/ http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-looks-and-online-dati... (Says nothing about what they think about the people they eventually end up with, of course.)
T-hawk 13y ago
Right. The average of a number of samples can exhibit characteristics not present in each sample, and so it does here. One characteristic often considered attractive in a woman's face is a rounded soft jawline. The average of a large number of samples will tend towards rounded soft features, just by the nature of averaging which blurs together any large outliers. A starker example: People who weigh 80 pounds and people who weigh 240 pounds are both considered unattractive. But average a bunch of each and you get a perfectly attractive mean or median of 160.

by ijk 13y ago

chrischen 13y ago

But supposedly what's defined as average is someone who's features look like most other people. So by definition, the good looking should be a plurality in the population right? That's probably a good thing, otherwise most of the population would end up with people they think are ugly.

jonahx 13y ago
The good looking are certainly not a plurality. JERRY: Elaine, what percentage of people would you say are good looking? ELAINE: Twenty-five percent. JERRY: Twenty-five percent, you say? No way! It’s like 4 to 6 percent. It’s a twenty to one shot. ELAINE: You’re way off. JERRY: Way off? Have you been to the motor vehicle bureau? It’s like a leper colony down there. ELAINE: So what you are saying is that 90 to 95 percent of the population is undateable? JERRY: UNDATEABLE! ELAINE: Then how are all these people getting together? JERRY: Alcohol.
ijk 13y ago
Again, different meanings of "average": median attractiveness vs. balanced, symmetrical facial features. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averageness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averageness Also, if you believe OKCupid Trends, "2/3 of male messages go to the top 1/3 of women" and "women rate an incredible 80% of guys as worse-looking than medium": http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-looks-and-online-dating/ http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/your-looks-and-online-dati... (Says nothing about what they think about the people they eventually end up with, of course.)

T-hawk 13y ago

Right. The average of a number of samples can exhibit characteristics not present in each sample, and so it does here. One characteristic often considered attractive in a woman's face is a rounded soft jawline. The average of a large number of samples will tend towards rounded soft features, just by the nature of averaging which blurs together any large outliers. A starker example: People who weigh 80 pounds and people who weigh 240 pounds are both considered unattractive. But average a bunch of each and you get a perfectly attractive mean or median of 160.