Better sit down for this shocker:
LONELY hearts beware: looking for love at a speed-dating event may leave you feeling unlovable. In big groups, people judge on looks so much that the less stunning may as well forget their clever chat-up lines.
[. . .]
So why do humans seem to differ from other animals? In smaller groups, says Lenton, people trade off different qualities in prospective mates - physical attractiveness for intelligence, for example. Faced with too much choice, however, we resort to crude approaches such as choosing solely on looks.
So, good-looking people have a better chance of picking somebody up than ugly people? Who knew? Guess I'll quit working on my opening lines.
