Hot Or Not? Who Cares? He Does. Or Maybe Not.

ND YOU THOUGHT THE WEB WAS JUST FOR POINTLESS DISTRACTION AND VOYEURISM WHILE AT THE OFFICE? WRONG.

Seems some enterprising psychologists used stats collected over at Hot Or Not to confirm – big surprise! – that even men with ugly mugs think they have a chance with super models.

"Men might as well reach for the stars," said Harvard University psychologist William Pollack of the study reported recently in Psychological Science.

Using data from more than 16,000 people collected over 10 days in 2005, researchers concluded that unattractive men were far more likely to hit on women out of their league than women were inclined to do the same.

“Men were less likely than women to think that their own lack of attractiveness — based both on a self assessment and the ratings of others — should stand in the way of a date with someone "hot," is how one MSNBC article summed up the study.

The study generated the usual reactive blather about women -- required to invest more time and energy into offspring -- have a biological imperative to be selective. "Women are the ones who are going to have the baby. They need to be a little more picky," said Pollack.

And the men? Picky? HA! That is to laugh.

The men in the study requested a whopping 240 percent more dates than the women.

So what did we really learn? Not that men aim high, but aim at anything. Which inevitably means they're going to shoot an awful lot of backfires and blanks.

But then, we already knew that too.

Anna Apocalypse, who blogs at Pop Apocalypse.Blogspot.com, will comment periodically at CrabbyGolightly.com on music and other pop matters.

Posted September 16, 2008