If I did not know that the people around me were talking about Obama, I would have guessed that I was among a group of excited fans, infatuated with a rock singer, or a movie star. In fact, when I ask Obama supporters about how they expect him to fare against other US presidents, their general answer is that he is likely to be the best president of all time (some think he will be second to JFK). (more…)

Leonard Lee, George Loewenstein, James Hong, Jim Young and I recently conducted a study on the ways that one’s own attractiveness influences their perception of, and actions toward, others.

The first question we had is whether people who are less attractive themselves view the attractiveness of others differently. Using data sets from HOTorNOT.com we found that regardless of how attractive people themselves are, they seem to judge others’ attractiveness in similar ways, supporting the notion that we have largely universal, culturally independent standards of beauty (e.g. symmetric faces). Moreover, we found that people prefer to date others who are moderately more attractive than they are themselves. (more…)