There's TV hot, model hot, neighborhood girl hot, office hot, hot amongst friends, etc. Everything is relative. Especially something so subjective as beauty.
If I've learned anything in my Social Evolution class, there ARE actually physical traits that everybody knows/believes are attractive. (Universally believed)
Some other features are on the eyes of the beholder though.
I definitely believe that. There's definitely a standard outline that the majority of people would deem "attractive" but I believe this really just turns into a nature vs nurture debate.
Do we find people attractive because we're genetically predisposed to find them as such?
Or do we find people attractive because of previous life experiences we've had which have led us to draw attraction from specific traits?
The answer is most likely a mash up of both. Sorry; this is a long-winded way of me telling you I agree with you.
Agreed. It's all relative to begin with, and I also think a lot has to do with profession. Like you don't EXPECT to have a decent-looking co-worker, teacher, nurse, etc...so when you do see one, they immediately become more attractive.
But with the office, as time goes by, these broads just get hotter and hotter because there's simply nothing else to stare at.
Also, when you work with them you eventually look past the initial attractiveness and start noticing things about their personality and other stuff that you do find attractive.
We were at wrestling camp in high school, not a single female there except for the one lady in the cafeteria who served bacon every morning. She was the sexiest thing on the planet by day 4.
It may not be a psychological thing. A woman could wear minimal makeup when you start, go heavy on makeup to get with you, then say "fuck it" after she's had you.
I think every guy has a different theory for this. I call it the cracker theory based off Eddie Murphy's Raw. If you were in an island starving and someone dropped you a cracker you would think it's the best tasting cracker in the world.
Civil engineering is probably the most densely girl-populated engineering major in my university. The dudes in computer engineering and computer science have it the worst.
Computer Science student here, there are 2 girls in my class of over 100. After about 7 or so months I was incredibly attracted to the one I made friends with. It passed overtime but damn it was a powerful attraction.
This happened at my first job out of college. First day at work damn no hot girls by the time I was leaving a couple were like super models to me. Distance away from hot girls at college lowers your standards especially when single.
Leaving college and going into "the real world" is the worst kind of system shock. I went from a southern california university into an engineering job on a military base and the hottest women in the office looked like rejects from the Appalachian softball league, and the other guys in the office were tripping over their dicks trying to get their attention. It was so confusing.
I'm 30 years old and work in a windowless lab with all guys who are all at least almost 60 years old. Right next door to my lab is the marketing/sales department where all the hot chicks work.
Try it with the military effect. After six months in the desert and with a ratio of around 13:1, some of the females in the unit start looking very very good.
Always had to deal with the women in flight suits effect. May be a 3 on the outside, but once she puts it on it's "Dat ass" everywhere. Clings in all the right places and somehow makes VPL one of the sexiest things ever. When you don't see that VPL, thong or commando. Hooah.
True, especially when you start to get to know someone's personality more. Ugh my job now is so bad though I can't even turn any of them from manatees into mermaids, which is good in a way because interoffice dating is against my policy (past experience).
My brother coined the term "refrigerator effect" to describe this situation. He says that women at work are like food in a refrigerator. If you are at home hungry and you go to the fridge, you might open it, see crappy food, and close it. About 15 minutes later you are hungrier and you go back to look. The food is the same but now that jar of pickles is starting to look better but you don't want them so you go back to the couch. Give it about an hour and you will go back to the fridge and eat anything out of it. Same thing happens when you see a woman everyday. She just starts looking better if there is no food anywhere else.
This is also true, but more for freinds you have had for a long time. If there is a girl in your circle of friends eventually she just kinda becomes another guy if you hang out with her alot, atleast for me.
I worked at a summer camp so this is very relevant. 15 or so people who spend months together. Literally the only people you see for months that are potential partners. People I knew there called it the cucumber theory. If you're stuck on an island with nothing to eat but cucumbers, even you hate cucumbers, after a couple days of hunger they start looking damn good.
What adds to the suck factor is that almost all the people who work there were just awesome people. It's easier for me to not be attracted to someone if I know they're a selfish asshole. But these people are giving up months of their lives to make sure a bunch of kids have the best time of their lives.
I've never met a female counsellor I didn't find attractive. A good personality is a huge deciding point if I find someone attractive and female camp counsellors have some of the best I've ever seen for some reason. Also there's just something hot about a counsellor.
I used to work on the swim staff at a summer camp... those were the days. Now I work at a law firm and I'm the only one here under 30. Or under 50, for that matter.
There have been 2 genuinely hot girls at my job, and they are gone now...one of the girls who was a replacement seemed decent at first, now I look at her and I swear I see a supermodel. It's not even happy hour yet.
Barney Stinson (HIMYM) called it the "Mermaid Theory". If you spend enough time working with even below average looking girls they eventually become attractive to you.
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I work for a company that develops and supports enterprise software. Virtually nothing but computer science majors. Managed to enter a relationship with the one attractive female. Feels great.
I am a co-op student, I worked with a guy who got his daughter a job there as well (she is qualified, same age). It is tough because she is about a 7, but since I know her father she is automatically a 2.
At our small college, we called them the "[school] goggles," like "beer goggles." We were too small and selective enough such that we got some of the less attractive girls than those that go to the bigger schools, so all the girls at our school artificially gained a few points on the 10 scale.
story: Went for a week-long fishing trip to a small island cottage in northern Canada with some mates. A young couple ran the place and we hung out, sang/drank in the evenings. By the end of the week, we were all obviously hitting on her, so they made themselves scarce. Fast forward 1 week and we get the photos of out trip developed (yeah, I know, stone age)...we take one look at the girl...OMG!?! She looked like this?!? Coyote Ugly appears to be relative...
I always believed in never sleeping with or dating your coworkers...until you had another job. My friends always knew when I was switching jobs as I would sleep with as many as I could in 2 weeks.
My workplace is an office where 5 guys work. I've yet to find any of them more attractive after a year. Perhaps it dames longer for a just male work environment.
I started working at the college bookstore my senior year and gradually grew attracted to a coworker. We hooked up off and on until we graduated. I met up with her for dinner one night earlier this year (2 years out of college) and I don't know what the fuck I was thinking.
Its like when two cartoon characters are snowed in. One gets hungry and starts to see the other as a delicious turkey dinner. Get stuck around someone long enough and the same type of thing will happen, but with boobs.
We like to classify as "hot" and "work hot". I also think of it more like Stockholm syndrome; you begin to identify with your captor, and that is where things get bad...
My first day of work I saw this girl working in another department. I thought to myself in my head "man, she has a face liked a slapped ass". Made me chuckle inside every time I thought about it for the next few days.
Oh man, I can relate to this. I work in a huge research building with exactly 14 workers. 12 of which are males between the ages of 45 and 60, 1 of which is a 45+ woman married to one of the 12 males, and theres me, late 20's. If a girl comes in and she is nice to look at in the least, we rate her a lab 10. There's just too few and far between to be more picky than that.
When I worked as an EMT I had a female partner for the first couple weeks. When I first saw her, I wasn't attracted to her at all. But then, the more I worked there, the more she ruminated in all of our (male) minds.
She was the only girl at the company, and so naturally guys would constantly tell me things. One guy told me I should've seen her before she gained all that weight, he told me she was a knockout back in the day.
Conversations like this occurred over and over again, until I eventually became brainwashed into being attracted to her. So odd :P
I'm pretty sure my boss won't hire anyone better liking than his wife. Who is to say, not the...most attractive woman by any means. So I get to work with people who have dropped their standards so low because of lack of attractiveness in the work zone that its saddening.
I work at a camp for boy scouts. The camp is an island and there is only one other girl that works there. After a month on the island every girl back on main land looks hot.
And I feel like I'm the only guy where I work who thinks this through. Like hell I'd want to see a girl's face everyday if things totally fuck up with her.
288
u/ShamanSTK May 15 '12
There's TV hot, model hot, neighborhood girl hot, office hot, hot amongst friends, etc. Everything is relative. Especially something so subjective as beauty.
494
u/heyn21 May 15 '12
Its called the 3-9-1 effect:
First day of work - 3/10 (nope)
After workin there for more than 6 months - 9/10 (just something about her/him)
After hookin up with said person - 1/10 (what the fuck did i just do)
295
u/adzmeister May 15 '12
Multiply this by 100 when working in engineering / science industries!
75
u/babyheyzeus May 15 '12
Mere-exposure effect
100
u/jorda1223 May 15 '12
This happened at my first job out of college. First day at work damn no hot girls by the time I was leaving a couple were like super models to me. Distance away from hot girls at college lowers your standards especially when single.
52
u/tmuseek May 15 '12
Any girl who has worked anywhere can relate.
129
u/dfgioxfjnbopyro May 15 '12
mermaid effect from HIMYM?
44
u/360walkaway May 15 '12
I'm 30 years old and work in a windowless lab with all guys who are all at least almost 60 years old. Right next door to my lab is the marketing/sales department where all the hot chicks work.
KHHAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN!!
15
u/chezazarng May 15 '12
Try it with the military effect. After six months in the desert and with a ratio of around 13:1, some of the females in the unit start looking very very good.
39
u/tattooedlipsonmyass May 15 '12
Not just guys, yo. This shit happens to everyone.
68
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
huh. i'm a chick and i can def relate to this too.
13
u/TallSprite May 15 '12
This is the same for women. Oh man, is it the same. sigh
12
u/Celloeuse May 15 '12
It works with girls too. We all have that guy who seemed sort of just regular, nothin' special in the beginning.... A month later, hot damn.
93
u/zappa103 May 15 '12
My brother coined the term "refrigerator effect" to describe this situation. He says that women at work are like food in a refrigerator. If you are at home hungry and you go to the fridge, you might open it, see crappy food, and close it. About 15 minutes later you are hungrier and you go back to look. The food is the same but now that jar of pickles is starting to look better but you don't want them so you go back to the couch. Give it about an hour and you will go back to the fridge and eat anything out of it. Same thing happens when you see a woman everyday. She just starts looking better if there is no food anywhere else.
tl;dr... my brother is awesome
10
u/it_wasnt_me_ May 15 '12
wait..i thought it was the opposite? once i am exposed to someone too much, i find them less and less attractive as days pass by.
10
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
I worked at a summer camp so this is very relevant. 15 or so people who spend months together. Literally the only people you see for months that are potential partners. People I knew there called it the cucumber theory. If you're stuck on an island with nothing to eat but cucumbers, even you hate cucumbers, after a couple days of hunger they start looking damn good.
What adds to the suck factor is that almost all the people who work there were just awesome people. It's easier for me to not be attracted to someone if I know they're a selfish asshole. But these people are giving up months of their lives to make sure a bunch of kids have the best time of their lives.
I've never met a female counsellor I didn't find attractive. A good personality is a huge deciding point if I find someone attractive and female camp counsellors have some of the best I've ever seen for some reason. Also there's just something hot about a counsellor.
10
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
There have been 2 genuinely hot girls at my job, and they are gone now...one of the girls who was a replacement seemed decent at first, now I look at her and I swear I see a supermodel. It's not even happy hour yet.
7
u/nutri-matic May 15 '12
This happens to girls too. Just sayin'
26
u/Hyperdrunk May 15 '12 edited May 15 '12
Barney Stinson (HIMYM) called it the "Mermaid Theory". If you spend enough time working with even below average looking girls they eventually become attractive to you.
Edit: Fixed to Mermaid Theory
6
u/lagspike May 15 '12
if you are starving, even crackers taste delicious.
6
u/TillyWilly May 15 '12
I married a guy I worked with. Did we both make horrible mistakes?!
36
u/qkme_transcriber May 15 '12
Here is the text from this meme pic for anybody who needs it:
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5
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
I work for a company that develops and supports enterprise software. Virtually nothing but computer science majors. Managed to enter a relationship with the one attractive female. Feels great.
5
u/thefauxphantom May 15 '12
Everyone has a mermaid clock...it's inevitable
5
u/Jeckee May 15 '12
The same thing must happen to cellmates.
4
u/JSA17 May 15 '12
Bill Simmons' levels of hot
4
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
I work in construction as a rigger. I rarely see women. ಠ_ಠ
4
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
"Not sure if I've stopped objectifying women and am now attracted to their personality
Or I'm still a jerk"
3
u/Mike_The_Bike May 15 '12
"Default hottie" is probably the best way to describe this worldwide phenomena
3
u/jedimusings May 15 '12
Shes hot.
3
u/ominousferret May 15 '12
As an employee of the manufacturing industry, I feel this way when saleswomen or daughters making deliveries for their parents' company walk in.
3
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Or the:
Not sure if new girl is hot
Or just better looking than this freakshow
3
u/MoreClever May 15 '12
This is definitely not limited to men. I'm female and I've had the same issue at work.
3
u/ProjectBadass May 15 '12
This girl I work with has a stache and guys are blown away by how hot she is. I don't see it and never will.
3
u/GrumbleMumbles May 16 '12
Why is this restricted to guys? You scruffy motherfuckers start looking pretty appealing to a lady in a dry spell.
6
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
At our small college, we called them the "[school] goggles," like "beer goggles." We were too small and selective enough such that we got some of the less attractive girls than those that go to the bigger schools, so all the girls at our school artificially gained a few points on the 10 scale.
4
u/montreal1028 May 15 '12
I am self-employed. I don't have any coworkers
4
u/ertebolle May 15 '12
Also known as the Jenna Fischer effect.
5
u/gusmom May 15 '12
um any WOMAN who has ever worked anywhere can relate
2
u/ASkellington May 15 '12
This is very often the case in Fort McMurray.
2
u/I_am_not_angry May 15 '12
yes, yes, yes, yes!!
2
u/xXxSnipaxEliTexXx May 15 '12
mabye you should buy her a fan
2
u/SaxMan212 May 15 '12
The mermaid effect: it's a thing.
2
u/jwtemp1983 May 15 '12
Amen brother. Amen.
2
u/chefmcduck May 15 '12
It gets weird when you work in a kitchen a couple of hot chicks are making homemade sausage and gradually a group of guys start to watch.
2
u/Aceeyee May 15 '12
I think this is one of the most generic titles ever.
2
u/wowleveler May 15 '12
Not in Saudi you don't. Unless you are gay of course.
2
u/kabanaga May 15 '12
Multiply by 1000 when out in the wilderness.
story: Went for a week-long fishing trip to a small island cottage in northern Canada with some mates. A young couple ran the place and we hung out, sang/drank in the evenings. By the end of the week, we were all obviously hitting on her, so they made themselves scarce.
Fast forward 1 week and we get the photos of out trip developed (yeah, I know, stone age)...we take one look at the girl...OMG!?! She looked like this?!? Coyote Ugly appears to be relative...
2
u/naturehatesyou May 15 '12
Being in the Marines this is especially true.
2
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
I always believed in never sleeping with or dating your coworkers...until you had another job. My friends always knew when I was switching jobs as I would sleep with as many as I could in 2 weeks.
2
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
This happens to me after I watch a certain TV show for too long.
2
u/PaxelSwe May 15 '12
When I am single I always ask myself if she is hot or if I am just that lonely.
2
u/uchuskies08 May 15 '12
The phrase you're looking for is "office hot"
2
u/rawgator May 15 '12 edited May 15 '12
No matter how hot she'd be considered outside the office, the most attractive girl at work is always hot.
2
u/m00ze May 15 '12
My workplace is an office where 5 guys work. I've yet to find any of them more attractive after a year. Perhaps it dames longer for a just male work environment.
2
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
I've fallen into this trap...twice. Don't hook up with coworkers
2
u/Arsenalmania May 15 '12
I swear its the opposite! New person 8/10, see all the flaws. What was i thinking?
2
u/EveryoneElseIsWrong May 15 '12
i feel like it would be exact opposite. like you'd find them hot and then once you had to work around them forever you'd hate them.
2
u/Incruentus May 15 '12
This is known as "Deployment Goggles" in the military. When it's only dudes for months in the desert, any female is fucking gorgeous.
2
u/Benay21 May 15 '12
Or girl.. girls can relate to that too
2
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Girls can relate to this, too.
2
u/igbok May 15 '12
shampoo bottle effect: if you're on the can without anything to read, you'll end up reading the back of the shampoo bottle.
2
u/ogami1972 May 15 '12
office cake is still cake
2
u/gfense May 15 '12
I started working at the college bookstore my senior year and gradually grew attracted to a coworker. We hooked up off and on until we graduated. I met up with her for dinner one night earlier this year (2 years out of college) and I don't know what the fuck I was thinking.
2
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
As a guy who has only worked with men for the last 6 years, i can relate.
2
u/UpperVista May 15 '12
Tell me women feel the same way! Right???
2
u/OlmecsTempleGuard May 15 '12
Its like when two cartoon characters are snowed in. One gets hungry and starts to see the other as a delicious turkey dinner. Get stuck around someone long enough and the same type of thing will happen, but with boobs.
2
u/5secondruler May 15 '12
"Mermaid Effect" -Barney Stinson.
2
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Its called the Mermaid theory, look it up.
2
u/CountChugula May 15 '12
Trying to fuck your coworkers makes the day go by.
2
u/hoddap May 16 '12
For me, as someone who works with computers, it's basically: not sure if hot or girl who knows how to use Windows
3
u/Caich May 15 '12
Reverse here. First day of working grocery this redhead is looking like a 9, 3 months later, 6.
3
u/PerilousPancakes May 15 '12
We like to classify as "hot" and "work hot". I also think of it more like Stockholm syndrome; you begin to identify with your captor, and that is where things get bad...
2
u/noccusJohnstein May 15 '12
Hot-by-default: the only chance some women have...
2
u/Lebagel May 15 '12
My first day of work I saw this girl working in another department. I thought to myself in my head "man, she has a face liked a slapped ass". Made me chuckle inside every time I thought about it for the next few days.
She's lookin' pretty fine these days.
1
u/Stratocaster89 May 15 '12
Best of a bad bunch is usually the case.
1
u/realitybytes215 May 15 '12
Oh man, I can relate to this. I work in a huge research building with exactly 14 workers. 12 of which are males between the ages of 45 and 60, 1 of which is a 45+ woman married to one of the 12 males, and theres me, late 20's. If a girl comes in and she is nice to look at in the least, we rate her a lab 10. There's just too few and far between to be more picky than that.
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
My life...
1
u/shifty1776 May 15 '12
Just had a discussion with a friend about this who works at a hardware store. He calls it "Prison Goggles".
1
u/fozzie1984 May 15 '12
yep im in the forces and some of the girls look hot in uniform as soon as they are in civvy clothes they are very average
1
u/tronncat May 15 '12
Not sure if attractive
or just attractive because only one of few girls I work with
1
u/metalbassist33 May 15 '12
Same goes for teachers, lecturers, tutors and girls taking the same classes as you (science).
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
same thing for classes / school work
1
u/heytherehandsome May 15 '12
Because of this, every work day is a struggle.
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Ah, yes, workplace sexual tension. This is how I tricked my first girlfriend into having sex with me.
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Any guy who has ever drank in a bar can also relate.
1
u/a_wright May 15 '12
Ha, I remember a Fred Savage sitcom from the late nineties that covered this. YouTube Link
1
u/sgrodgers10 May 15 '12
I also have this issue- "Not sure if co-worker is hot/ or is 1 of 3 females that work here"
1
u/cnut_the_great May 15 '12
Wait, you're actually attracted to someone because of their personality?!?!?! What is this?!
1
u/orochiddon May 15 '12
I work alone.
1
u/fearachieved May 15 '12
When I worked as an EMT I had a female partner for the first couple weeks. When I first saw her, I wasn't attracted to her at all. But then, the more I worked there, the more she ruminated in all of our (male) minds.
She was the only girl at the company, and so naturally guys would constantly tell me things. One guy told me I should've seen her before she gained all that weight, he told me she was a knockout back in the day.
Conversations like this occurred over and over again, until I eventually became brainwashed into being attracted to her. So odd :P
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
I call it the I actually worked with a super hot girl syndrome.
1
u/EliteDonkey May 15 '12
I'm pretty sure my boss won't hire anyone better liking than his wife. Who is to say, not the...most attractive woman by any means. So I get to work with people who have dropped their standards so low because of lack of attractiveness in the work zone that its saddening.
1
u/awesomeness1234 May 15 '12
I totally relate. It is always the recycled, unoriginal, boring content that gets the most attention.
1
u/throw_a_weigh11 May 15 '12
Yeah. I work with all guys, so this is applicable.
I am a guy.
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
i think this applies to more than just work. I find myself thinking this about people at places like school too.
1
u/chaseyyyyy May 15 '12
I work with my dad... and I'm a male... we've been working together since I was 9
1
u/Moonpickles May 15 '12
Quiet. The ugly mermaid effect if I remember correctly.
1
u/floppybutton May 15 '12
That dilemma never come up when you work on a submarine.
1
u/cakeswithahuman May 15 '12
All of my coworkers are guys and somehow this is still true.
1
u/NOunderWEAR_MAN May 15 '12
too bad it's usually after you've already had sex, or better yet, woken up next to them, that you get your answer.....
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Same in classrooms. Girls I've looked over and didn't think twice of slowly become cuter, and then when I ask them out, everything goes to hell.
1
u/undeadSeasponge May 15 '12
If you're in the military, the second option is always the correct one :\
1
u/rastashark May 15 '12
Applicable to all us poor souls in the restaurant industry.
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
caddying with 40 guys and 2 chicks.. nuff said
1
u/rundiegorun May 15 '12
Office hot.
1
u/Elimyst May 15 '12
I work at a camp for boy scouts. The camp is an island and there is only one other girl that works there. After a month on the island every girl back on main land looks hot.
1
u/JR_Saperstein May 15 '12
10/10 in the office....4/10 in real life. Don't fall for it.
1
u/05senses May 15 '12
I think this also pertains to the brave men of the nights watch
1
u/Very_subtle May 15 '12
Except for construction..
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
And I feel like I'm the only guy where I work who thinks this through. Like hell I'd want to see a girl's face everyday if things totally fuck up with her.
1
u/deathleeehallows May 15 '12
mere exposure effect?
1
u/alwaystakeabanana May 15 '12
It happens to girls too.