“One important, relevant, fascinating, and data-driven finding was uncovered by researchers at the University of Texas. In the beginning of a course, the professors asked all the heterosexual students in that course to rate the attractiveness of each of their opposite-sex classmates. Not surprisingly, there was a good deal of consensus. Most people picked the same classmates as the most attractive; these people were, by definition, conventionally attractive. Think Brad Pitt or Natalie Portman or the closest equivalents in the class. At the end of the course, professors again asked the students to rate the attractiveness of each of their opposite-sex classmates. This is where the study got interesting. Now there was more disagreement in the attractiveness ratings. At the end of the class, people were far more likely to rate a person that other people didn’t find so attractive as the most attractive. What happened between the beginning and the end of the course that led so many people to change the rankings of their classmates’ attractiveness? The students spent time with each other.”