If I'm Not Hot, Are You Hot or Not? Physical Attractiveness Evaluations and Dating Preferences as a Function of Own Attractiveness

Prior research has established that people's own physical attractiveness affects their selection of romantic partners. The current work provides further support for this effect and also examines a different yet related question: when less attractive people accept less attractive dates, do they persuade themselves that those they choose to date are more physically attractive than others perceive them to be? Our analysis of data from the popular website HOTorNOT.com suggests that this is not the case: less attractive people do not delude themselves into thinking that their dates are more physically attractive than others perceive them to be.