Are You “Hot or Not”?

Abstract

Research has established that physical attractiveness is the biggest determinant of success in the online dating market. What traits make one more or less attractive? HotOrNot (http://www.hotornot.com) provides a unique forum for an experiment to answer this question. The site displays pictures of people who viewers rate on a scale of 0 (not) to 10 (hot). Once the viewer rates the picture, the page refreshes with a new picture to rate as well as data (average rating and the number of votes cast) for the previous image. The user only see how others rated a person after the user rates the photo. The over 25 million pictures on HotOrNot are rated from more than 12 billion votes. The website does not provide demographic information on who is voting, or on the models, although a model may attach a short statement to their photo. Anecdotal evidence from using the site suggests that curvy, thin females with revealing clothing tend to receive higher ratings, while handsome, physically fit men seem to receive higher than average ratings. We developed an experiment to test whether subtle changes in one’s look could have a significant effect on one’s attractiveness rating on HotOrNot. We used three male and three female college-aged models, and took a variety of photos of the models, holding constant the background, lighting, pose, and clothing. The first picture is a control photo. For each subsequent photo we changed one characteristic of the model. Atl Econ J (2008) 36:367–368 DOI 10.1007/s11293-008-9127-9