Survey on the correlation between "hotness" and "craziness"

In My Humble Opinion
1

Whilst in the shower this morning, I got into an interesting discussion/argument with myself (as I am often wont to do) over the correlation between the attractiveness and craziness of all the girls I’ve been close to. I began going back through all my relationships realizing that all the girls I’ve been most attracted to have also been the most insanely unreasonable bi-polar bitches I’ve ever met. Now, this may seem like an restatement of the obvious to most, that the attributes of women are mutually exclusive (hot women are self-absorbed, stupid, high-maintenance, picky, and often downright crazy, whereas ordinary or even homely girls are gracious, friendly, smart and/or desperate for love), but my hope here was that others might indulge my curiosity by sharing some data for an informal survey. I’m hoping to challenge dopers to weigh the attributes of their significant others using an admittedly unfair method, and to collect some data along the way.

On a scale of 1 [lowest] to 10 [highest], give me two numbers representing how you feel (or felt) about your current (or most recent) “special someone”. The first number rates your physical attraction toward them, the second number rates how mentally stable you think they are. The challenge here, unfair as it may seem, is to keep in mind that the numbers cannot add up to more than ten (i.e. someone cannot be a have anything more than a 0 rating for sanity if they have a 10 rating in looks). I think this will keep people honest and prevent skewing the results in favor of those who are hopelessly in love with someone who is both stable and whom they absolutely adore. I had to do this because I cannot trust Dopers to be indiscriminate, hehe. Please keep in mind that the sanity rating is not a measure of smarts, it is a measure of your perception of their mental stability. My hypothesis for this informal survey, if you hadn’t guessed by now, is that hot people are mentally warped (or at the very least, not entirely in touch with reality), while ordinary or ugly people are quite stable.

For example, the most recent girl I was with had the best bod I’ve ever had the pleasure of exploring sans clothing, and while she was also very smart, she unfortunately turned out to be of the crazy bi-polar psycho variety. I’d therefore rate her at a 9:1. Choosing to call it quits with her wasn’t easy, she was downright hot. Conversely, I was with a girl before her who was certainly not a looker, but who was smart, dedicated, and not especially crazy (and therefore terribly predictable). I’d rate her at a 3:7, which doesn’t seem terribly fair, as ordinarily I wouldn’t rate her a 3/10 in looks, but that’s how the distribution of this survey works. You have to amplify or deflate one attribute over the other. In the end, I suppose these numbers convey how much dysfunction you’re willing to put up with from a significant other in exchange for good looks. :smiley:

Keep in mind that your own opinion is what matters in the scoring, not how others might see your special someone. You are also free to share more than one. My guess is that the collected data might form a normal distribution bell curve with a strong standard deviation in the center, but I could be wrong … I think the answers could turn out to be interesting.

2

I highly doubt there is a correlation. If anything, the correlation is probably slightly reversed from what you think.

The reason you notice it is that if you meet a girl that isn’t very attractive AND isn’t mentally stable…you will pass her by or get rid of her quickly (after 1st/2nd date).

The reason you hang on to mentally unstable women and form a relationship with them is because they are hot. LIkewise with not-so attractive women that are stable.

3

The rules of your rating system are designed to produce the outcome you’re asking about. You’re assuming that the hottest, most attractive women will be the craziest and your guidelines are designed to prove that theory. However, in my experience, it doesn’t always work. Sometimes, not always.

I fell head over heels in love with a girl’s looks just once in my life, and her personality only reinforced that feeling. Over time it became clear to me that she didn’t have a “craziness” gene. I married her. Twenty-two years after that love at first sight moment, I still love her for the same reasons. My perception of her mental ability is that she’s a 10, and she’s also a 10 (to me) in hotness.

By the guidelines you proposed, if I gave her a 10 for looks, I’d have to give her a 0 for stability (meaning she’s completely unstable). But since my perception of her isn’t a 0, but a 10, the rating system doesn’t work.

4

You know I hate to slam my own gender but I think it’s us guys that get all stupid around hot women.

I’m currently in the process of training a VERY attractive 20something year old at my work.

We don’t get a lot of hotties where I work. It’s amazing how many swinging dicks come out of the wood work to stop by and try to work there magic on this girl. :rolleyes:

If this is any indication of what hot women go through every day, all day for there entire lives. (or at least until they get old and wrinkly) It’s no wonder how some of these ladies might have a slight social affect when US guys are constantly bending over backwards just to kiss their ass.

5

The survey presupposes that it’s an awkward correlation. If every unproven hypothesis was shot down for being a silly correlation between two unrelated things, there would be a lot of uncorrelated things in the world that nobody ever bothered gathering data on. People have compared everything from the correlation of wall paint to emotional condition and sound waves to weather patterns. If there are two things that are uncorrelated, there’s probably a scientist somewhere trying to correlate them. This survey isn’t much of a stretch.

Wrong. I’ve been with women from every part of the spectrum and their looks were never a determining factor in how long I was with them. Seeing as how this is a gender-neutral survey of what people tend to value in a partner, rather than a survey on how long guys are willing to stay with an not-so-attractive girl, this is irrelevant.

**McNew:**I acknowledged the seemingly unfair nature of the rules, and I am not “assuming” anything about women, I am asking people to weigh in on what they value most, in much the same way guys might ask one another whether they’d rather have a “carface” or a “butterface”. The nature of the question doesn’t allow you to have it both ways, and this scoring system ensures that. If everyone could choose 10 for both attributes as it applies to the love of their life, of course they’d choose 10:10 … why would they choose anything less? Think of it as the evil genius (which I am :D) forcing the dashing hero to choose between his girlfriend and saving a bunch of innocent people. Of course, the hero always gets to save both in the movies, but we all know that’s a crock. If I adjusted the scoring to what you suggest, then everyone (myself included) would ideally give the same biased 10:10 answer, which would also be a crock.

Perhaps I should have prefaced the survey as being best suited to serial-dating folks and other unsuccessful singles, as opposed to happily married people or men judging how smart a woman is based on her looks.

6

To give you one data point, one of the hottest women I have ever met is married to a cousin of mine. Everyone recognizes that this woman is hot, so it’s not just one person’s opinion. My own very straight mother said that she is “built like a brick shithouse.” She’s thin and tallish with a great rack, gorgeous skin, and long slightly curly hair. She’s got a gorgeous smile, and dark Italian eyes. Based on nothing but stereotyping, we all kind of expected her to be a snotty bitch.

Actually, she is smart, sweet, and funny. She’s great to have at parties. I’d say she’s completely sane. My cousin appears to have no complaints.

7

By requiring the numbers to add up to 10, you’re forcing a correlation. In short, the scale/system simply doesn’t work.

8

While there are exceptions to every correlation, I do think you’re onto something.
Going by my own experiences, I would say that, yes, the hottest guys I have ever dated have also tended to be the most emotionally messed up ones.

I suspect it has a lot to do with the fact that attractive people simply CAN get away with acting more obnoxious without anyone calling them on it.
Ugly people generally learn, sooner or later, that they must cultivate a pleasant personality if they want people to give them the time of day. But a hot-looking psycho-bitch or handsome sociopath can easily find someone who will put up with whatever they dish out. So, there is less incentive to get their act together.

9

I don’t think there is any correlation whatsoever. There may be a correlation between hotness and aloofness, and it’s probably a defense mechanism resulting from too much unwanted attention.

It’s only when it’s your attention that is unwanted does aloofness look an awful lot like bitchiness.

10

My ex was a Hooters calender model. I would scale her an 8.5. She was absolutely batshit insane, and after I broke up with her and moved out, she threatened to find out where I was moving and burn it down.

The girl I’m talking to/hanging out with now is a solid 9.5, and is the sweetest, most caring, giving, and stable girl I have ever met. There is no correlation, I don’t think.

11

My last girlfriend was insanely hot. She was also as mentally stable as they come. She is a librarian for crying out loud. She is focused and disciplined and smart. So she is a 10:10.

On the other hand, the girlfriend before her was a complete dog. She was also completely insane. How I wound up with her is another story that I have no interest in telling, but she was a 1:1.

So based on my completely tiny sample size, I would say your hypothesis is completely flawed.

There is no bias either on my part. I am no longer with either of these women. One was crazy and ugly, and the other was stable and hot.

12

Ignoring your rule about adding up to 10 for the reasons previously stated, some previous ratings (in no particular order) have been: 9:3; 5:10; 6:4; 8:5.

13

If you would like to expand your theory, I did once see the definition of women as follows:

Pick 2 of 3:
Hot
Sane
Intelligent

14

First wife: plain (bordering on slightly pretty), batshit crazy.

Second wife (sorta): totally hot, turned heads in the street, batshit crazy too.

Best female friend: average looks, totally sane.

15

Removed

16

I don’t like your measurement system, because my husband is ridiculously mentally well balanced (absurdly, I say), but he’s also freakin’ adorable. I would rate him a ‘‘2’’ on craziness and an ‘‘8’’ on attractiveness.

Myself, I would rate a ‘6’’ on craziness and a ‘‘4’’ on hotness, though he’s tolerated some fairly high level craziness from myself in the past.

17

I only ever dated women who were at least fairly hot - okay, I was picky - and only one of them was legitimately a nutbar. My wife’s hot and she’s as sane as rain.

The craziest people I’ve ever met were not likely to be attractive.

18

Despite the OP’s follow-up, I still think it’s simply a case of putting up with more craziness from an insanely hot person than a homely one. I stay away from guys who swear they have a string of crazy exes. They tend to ignore the only constant in those relationships.

19

Bingo. If there are 100 hot women in the room, I’ll be most attracted to the craziest one.

Although it won’t be immediately apparent that she’s totally nuts - at first she’ll seem to be the most intelligent and imaginative - I’ll eventually be forced to come to grips with this fact: my psychological makeup predisposes me toward not only recognizing, at first glance, the sometimes subtle clues that a particular woman is highly neurotic, but also finding this woman to be totally, mind-blowingly, slobber-worthy. :smack:

20

I suppose nobody wants to face the depressing possibility that the category is self-selecting: all the hot people I’ve had sex with were crazy because a hot person would have to be crazy to have sex with me.