So there I was, walking down to the Starbucks on campus when I see this girl sitting down all by herself in the corner of the cafe. I swear, she was just a perfect 10. Gorgeous brunette hair, beautifully thin, with sky blue eyes, a beautiful outfit, and skin so lightly tanned it looked it was kissed by the sun. My jaw practically dropped. You could easily tell the eyes of every guy was on her.

Then, on the other side, you see this average looking girl. Nice little outfit, cute face, and silky blonde hair, not perfect, but it looked very soft and combed, so she could easily be considered a good 7, slightly above-average. However, as I sat down and drank my coffee, I noticed a pattern. While the 10 sipped away at her tea, browsing away at her phone, she got absolutely no dudes coming up to try and hit on her. It was so perplexing. Why WOULDN'T you try and get the hottest girl in the room? She didn't even look like she was doing anything important, unless you count sipping chai tea and browsing twitter as the most important task of your day. It didn't hit me until I saw the 7 getting approached by at least 4 guys over the course of about 45 minutes.

Each one had a few minutes' worth of chatting in before she dropped the "I have a boyfriend" line, and the dudes slowly eased out and excused themselves. In the entire time, I never saw the 10 get approached. But then I kept thinking, why would all the guys go for the lower-status girl, instead of the 10? The answer boils down to just one thing:

The guy settles.

See, the guy doesn't go for the hottie, because he THINKS that she gets hit on like a million times a day, just because she's drop dead gorgeous. But in reality, the 10 is overselling herself. She could probably get all the guys she wanted if she looked more average, but because she looks like a playboy bunny, she's putting her buying price too high, and the guys aren't buying. They'd rather go for the girl they think they have a better chance on, with a lower buying price. Because of this, The less-attractive girl has the guys thinking she probably gets hit on less. Of course, we see this is untrue, as she gets approached many more times than the 10, simply because her buying price is lower.

In conclusion. It's a real paradox. Guy thinks that because hot girl is hot, he doesn't have a chance, so he goes with girl that he thinks he has a chance with, leaving the hot girl all by herself, because she's putting herself too high above, so as a result, she stays single and without a conversation partner. Meanwhile, the 7 gets all the attraction, albeit in vain, but nevertheless, she attracts all the men in the room simply because her lower perceived value puts her in a better position and status to be approached. this observation proves that perceived and actual social value is a really real thing you can use to your advantage. It's amazing what you can learn in the downtime between two classes.

TL;DR: Go for the hot ones, not the average ones. They get hit on less.