常識：不管多么差勁的男人都會自認為自己能贏得美女的芳心。

Why guys go for outta-their-league ladies

Men hit on hotties despite their own unattractiveness, study confirms

"You're prettier than I am," Seth Rogen's character drunkenly slurs to Katherine Heigl at one point in the 2007 movie "Knocked Up." Now a new study confirms what most of us have known all along: Men, no matter how unattractive, think they’ve got a chance with beautiful women.

It’s a rule, bartender Karen Brody says: The schlubbier the guy, the more likely he is to persistently pursue a pretty woman.

Brody — a lithe, slender Woodstown, N.J., bartender who looks at least a decade younger than her 47 years — recalls the time she was being "entertained" by a paunchy trucker with several missing front teeth. As the night wore on, he slumped to one side and eventually toppled off his barstool. When she raced around to make sure he was OK, the plump patron immediately resumed his pick-up patter — from the floor.

Apparently, the pudgy trucker isn't just an aberration, and the come-ons aren't just the after-effects of alcohol. A new study confirms what women say they've known all along: Men, no matter how unattractive, think they’ve got a chance with a runway model.

The proof was in the matchmaking Web site HOTorNOT.com, a site where members rate each others' "hotness." The site offered a treasure trove of data: It contained information not only on dating habits of its members, but also on the members’ opinions of their own attractiveness and the "hotness" of potential dates, according to a study published in a recent issue of Psychological Science.

Researchers studied ratings and dating information from 16,550 members during a 10-day period in 2005. All members studied were heterosexual, with 75 percent males and 25 percent female.

Using this data, they determined that the physical attractiveness of a potential mate was more important to men than women. And 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."

Maybe men think women have all read "The Frog Prince" and taken it to heart, allowing us to look past an ugly exterior in the search for inner beauty. Or perhaps it’s that men have internalized the messages in the popular media: movies like "Knocked Up," where the slacker hero lands a beautiful babe, or TV shows like "According to Jim," in which a difficult, slobby guy is coupled with a gorgeous wife.

The lead author of the study, Leonard Lee, an assistant professor at Columbia’s Graduate School of Business, thinks these far-fetched movie and TV couples might explain why unfortunate-looking men tend to hold out such high hopes. But he wonders whether the unattractive guys eventually learn that their chances are slim regardless of what they see on screen. There’s another important finding in the study, he says: The 10s among us, both male and female, want only to date other 10s.

There are hints in the HOTorNOT.com data that suggest men do learn to accept their limitations: They apparently hedge their bets by asking for more dates. In fact, the men in the study requested a full 240 percent more dates than the women. Researchers didn't look at how many of these online come-ons were successful, but the number of dates most men asked for might be a sign that the less attractive among us — even the men — recognize that they may have to settle for dating someone who is closer to them on the "hotness" scale.

"Good looking people are always looking for other good looking people," says Helen Fisher, a professor at Rutgers University who studies mating behavior and romantic love.

"And ultimately, men figure their own good looks are not as important as a woman’s," says Fisher, who wasn't involved with the study. "They figure they’re selling a whole lot of things that women want that aren’t associated with being attractive."

Besides, from an evolutionary perspective, men are simply looking for the woman most likely to produce a strong healthy baby — so that means they’re often focused on physical attractiveness.

"Men might as well reach for the stars," says William Pollack, a Harvard University psychologist and the director of the Center for Men and Young Men at McLean Hospital. "Women are the ones who are going to have the baby. They need to be a little more picky."

In the end, there might be some signs that boorish boys know they’re overreaching — and that may be expressed in the level of their braggadocio.

When a really attractive man is interested in a date, Brody says, he’s quieter and more cautious. "He’ll come back a bunch of times and try to get to know me before asking," she adds.

在《Knocked Up》的一幕場景中，Seth Rogen扮演的角色醉醺醺的對Katherine Heigl嘟噥：“你比我漂亮！”最新的一項研究證實了人們的一個常識：不管多么差勁的男人都會自認為自己能贏得美女的芳心。

“這是個規律”，酒保Karen Brody說，“越垃圾的家伙越不停的追求美女。”

Brody——Woodstown, N.J.的一個瘦弱的酒保，外表比她的實際年齡47歲年輕許多——回憶了她被一個大腹便便的、缺門牙的卡車司機“款待”的經歷。那天晚上，夜色漸深，那個卡車司機倒在一邊，最終從椅子上摔了下來。正當她跑過去看他是否有事時，他突然對她展開了攻勢——躺在地上。

顯然，那個胖司機沒什么毛病，他對Brody的勾引也不是因為酒精的作用。最新的一項研究證實了女人共知的一個常識：不管多么差勁的男人都會自認為自己能贏得美女的芳心。

證據就在婚介網站HOTorNOT.com上，在那里，會員可以彼此評價各自的“魅力”。這個網站提供了一組寶貴的數據：根據發表在最近一期《心理科學》上的一項研究的記載，它不僅包含了會員的約會習慣，還有會員對自己的吸引力以及對其潛在約會對象的“魅力”的評價。

研究者研究了2005年10天內16550個會員的得分和約會情況。所有被試的性取向均為正常，其中75%為男性，25%為女性。

通過這些數據，研究者認為，男性比女性更看重未來伴侶的外表。比起女性來，男性較少考慮這個問題：自身缺乏吸引力——不管是自認為的還是在別人看來——會阻礙自己與有“魅力”的人進行約會。

也許男人以為女人都看過《青蛙王子》的故事并銘記在心，于是我們女人可以追尋男人的內在美而忽略男人的丑陋外表?；蛘撸腥藘然舜蟊妭髅絺鬟f的信息：比如《Knocked Up》這樣的電影，一個懶鬼贏得了美女的芳心；比如《According to Jim》這樣的電視劇，一個麻煩、糟糕的男人娶到了漂亮的老婆。

該研究的主要作者，哥倫比亞大學商學院副教授Leonard Lee認為，電影、電視劇中那些不般配的夫妻也許能夠解釋為什么那些貌似倒霉的男人會抱有如此高的期望。但他不知道那些缺乏魅力的男人最終是否會明白，在現實中，他們的機會渺茫。該研究還有一個重要的發現：不管男女，都想要跟別人約會。

來自HOTorNOT.com的數據提示，男人須要學會接受自己的局限：他們顯然應該邀請更多的約會，以增加成功的幾率。事實上，研究中的男性提請約會的次數整整是女性的2.4倍。研究者并不關注這類在線的“勾引”有多少會成功，而是關注大多數男性發起的約會數量，這也許是個信號：缺乏吸引力的女性——甚至包括男性——滿足于與自己“魅力”指數近似的異性約會。

“漂亮的人總是追求漂亮的人”，該研究外的另一位學者、專門研究交配行為和浪漫愛情的羅格斯大學教授Helen Fisher說，“最終，男性發現他們自己的美貌并不像女性的美貌那樣重要。他們發現，雖然他們兜售了一大堆女性希望的東西，但這不會使他們變得富有吸引力?！?/P>

此外，從進化的角度來看，男人追求女人多半只是為了繁衍強壯、健康的后代——因此他們常常只關心女人的外表。

“男人也可以伸手去摘星追夢，”哈佛大學心理學家、McLean 醫院男性及青年男性中心主任William Pollack 說，“但只有女人能懷孕，所以她們需要多一些挑剔。

最后，也許有一些粗俗的男人發現自己過了頭的跡象——這表現在他們吹牛的程度中。

“當一個真正有吸引力的男人想要約會時，” Brody說，“他會更加平靜、小心?！薄八麜屑毸伎?，并且在約我之前試著了解我。”她補充道。