Is there something wrong with a numerical scale for judging attractiveness?

IIHotelYorba · 2014-05-24T03:19:47+00:00

I'd say there is in some situations. For guys going out to the bar, it's much better to use the binary system, 1 is I would, 0 is I wouldn't. This helps to eliminate bullshit excuses like "oh she's just a 7, it's not a big deal if I don't talk to her. I'll wait and talk to the girls I REALLY like." And then you sit there and talk to no one the whole night.

I've changed my mind on the 10 system, I like it now. I think you should go by your own personal scale, and use it to make sure you are pushing yourself. Use it to move toward your own personal 10, whoever that may be.

648262 · 2014-05-24T10:28:00+00:00

It's nothing wrong about it as long as you understand it is not very accurate and useful. Like /u/IIHotelYorba said, a more accurate system is a binary one of "yes" and "no".

Think of Tinder which is very binary. You could construct a score for everyone based on how many people Liked a person. Take "How many Liked divided by total number of voters". You get a percentage which you can translate into a 1-10 number. That information is probably fun to see if you are a person in the 8-10 area, but it is basically useless for anyone else other than to give an indication of how much you appreciate a person.

From a plate perspective it makes much more sense to use binary as well, because you do not compare people up against each other. They are all either "yay or nay".

Sunjammer0037 · 2014-05-25T14:12:30+00:00

Because it's not based on anything, just spouting the first number that comes to your head. For someone as obsessed with science as Red Pillers this fondness of scale rating seems quite ridiculous. Saying that this girl over there is 8 doesn't mean anything. How did you calculate it? Why 8 and not 7 or 6? What are the exact requirements for a woman to be 10 or 6? There are none. There's no mathematical formula to calculate a woman's level of attractiveness because it IS subjective. Yes, there are some beauty standards that are fairly universal, like body weight, but guess what, there still are people who prefer fatter women. And even when a certain women is found attractive by a wide population of men, for all of them her level of attractiveness will differ.

One more reason why women (or men) shouldn't be evaluated in a 1-10 scale is because their appearance is not fixated. It varied according to countless different factors: clothes, haircut, makeup, sleep, hormones, etc.

JohnnK · 2014-05-24T05:43:31+00:00

Honestly I want to know as well. I got into a two day argument with a redditor because of this ... Apparently if you rate someone on a 1-10 scale, you are "de-humanizing" them and being a shitty person :/

GayLubeOil · 2014-05-24T04:29:31+00:00

There is also a three point scale of: would fuck, would not fuck, would fuck when inebriated

egotherapy · 2014-05-24T10:46:26+00:00

I find the scale of attractiveness thing pretty absurd.

1) Having an accurate scale would mean having noticeable traits that would explain why there's a difference between one grade and another, and having a majority opinion is pretty irrelevant unless the person being rated cares about this.

2) Personality totally does influence rating someone's physical appearance. You can be the hottest person alive, but if you're incapable of hygiene, have no social skills, have "chronic bitchface" and spend all your time at home doing stupid crap then no-one will find you attractive.

3) This is from totally anecdotal evidence, but people do have very different types they find more attractive. And while some of those people could, if they wanted to, rate their interests as pretty close to what the majority thinks is attractive, some are wildly different and wouldn't represent anything (for example consider people who actually like anorexics vs feeders). I've also heard that women have very different types of people they like, so it's harder to determine some sort of attraction scale if a buff Taylor Lautner has the same amount of fans or fewer than a young and relatively girly looking Justin Bieber. And then there are also people attracted to Marilyn Manson.

4) The people discussing this attractiveness scale are usually young white straight guys on the internet, in mostly anonymous or semi-anonymous places like 4chan, TRP, other bro websites etc. For example, if you were a 80-year old grandma you have completely different ideas about attractiveness - you'd probably never rate an awkward teenager higher than a distinguished older gentleman. Since these types of scales are usually put together by one distinct group, they're more like to be very homogenous.

5) Usually this type of thinking excludes people who aren't straight, who are older, who aren't male, who aren't white. If you considered all of these extra opinions, there would probably be a lot more debate over these sort of attractiveness scales.

6) How do you think blind people judge people's attractiveness?

conjunction-gumption · 2014-05-26T02:34:35+00:00

Again, the scale is purely to grade their physical attractiveness and has no bearing on their worth or value as a person.

unfortunately this is not always the case.

crankypants15 · 2014-05-28T00:21:52+00:00

Am I some alien where a woman's physical attractiveness beyond a certain baseline just doesn't matter? I've never actually had a girl's pretty looks magically help us with relationship problems.

[deleted] · 2014-06-05T20:49:14+00:00

Bluepill;

I'm going to say no. Anybody who has eyes can see that some people are more attractive, some less. I think the problem is when that metric influences how you behave towards the person; just because somebody is a 2/10 doesn't mean they don't deserve respect/to be treated like a person.

GaiusScaevolus · 2014-05-24T05:34:46+00:00

it's all well and good to say that attraction is subjective, but let's face it, there are some pretty obvious standards. people who are critical of the numerical rating system can usually pretty much be placed in 1 of two camps, those who don't like the system because it is not egalitarian, and those that do not like the system because they feel it somehow condenses the entirety of an individual's identity and self worth into a number. it's interesting to note that man has always been very clear that the one to ten scale weight based solely on physical attractiveness, which has interesting implications on what it reveals in the thought processes of those that think the one to ten system encompasses all of a woman's worth.

And ultimately, outrage over the numerical rating system can be boiled down to women interfering into how men speak to men, and misunderstanding it, because they aren't the intended audience.

Title	Is there something wrong with a numerical scale for judging attractiveness?
Author	111111124
Upvotes	6
Comments	16
Date	May 24, 2014 1:57 AM UTC (12 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/26ci0a/is_there_something_wrong_with_a_numerical_scale/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/is-there-something-wrong-with-a-numerical-scale.285692 https://theredarchive.com/post/285692

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