Gauging the 'cheerleader effect'.

• Position: PSYCHOLOGY - Attractiveness research - Brief article

Do people seem more attractive in groups than they do by themselves? The "cheerleader effect," a theory popularized by a character on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, was recently tested by two psychologists at the University of California, San Diego. College students were shown photos of 300 different people--sometimes in group shots and sometimes solo--and asked to rate their attractiveness. When shown in a group (whether big or small), the same person was rated as more attractive than when he or she appeared alone in a picture. So what's happening here? The...