Like Homer and Marge on The Simpsons or Ed O’Neill and Sofia Vergara on Modern Family, the real world is also full of people who are, ahem, outkicking the coverage.
So how exactly does a Christina Hendricks wind up with a Geoffrey Arend?
Psychologists from the University of Texas at Austin and Northwestern University may have an answer.
After asking a third party to rate the attractiveness of 167 heterosexual couples, the researchers asked their subjects how long they had known each other and if they were friends prior to dating. The results of the study — which was published in Psychological Science — indicated that couples who were friends before hooking up were more likely to be mismatched in attractiveness level, with the disparity a direct function of how long they had known one another.
In fact, the researchers found no significant correlation between attractiveness and compatibility for couples who knew each other longer than nine months before dating.
While that may sound surprising, perhaps it shouldn’t, considering a recent study found the importance of good looks to both mate-seeking men and women ranked well behind traits like intelligence, sociability and being dependable.
All that said, the research also predicts that the days of dating up may be coming to an end as more people meet online after “matching” themselves to perceived equals.
Better get yourself out of the friendzone, and quick.
Image via 20th Television
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