Cheerleader Effect: “How I Met Your Mother” Dating Theory Scientifically Verified

Barney Stinson proposed a theory in  “How I Met Your Mother” Season 4: Episode 7 in which he labeled the “cheerleader effect”. “The cheerleader effect is when a group of women seem hot, but only as a group, Barney explains. “Just like cheerleaders. They seem hot, but take each one individually: Sled dogs.”

University of California, San Diego’s department of psychology conducted 5 experiments in which they concluded the cheerleader effect arises from a combination of three cognitive phenomena: 1) whenever we view a set of objects, our visual system formulates a general opinion about all of them collectively 2) the broad impression that we have of a whole group influences our perception of any one individual item and 3) mankind finds average faces very attractive,

Experiment: Drew Walker and Edward Vul of UCSD utilized 130 participants and showed them 300 different people. These participants were asked to rate the attractiveness of each person twice-once from an individual pic and another from a group pic.

Results: Participants rated the person more attractive when shown a group picture than when they saw the same person in an individual pic.

UCSD’s researchers concluded that: “Thus, having a few wingmen or wing women-may indeed by a good dating strategy, particularly if their facial features complement, and average out, one’s unattractive idiosyncrasies.”

Cindi May, a Professor of Psychology at the College of Charleston, proposes that when choosing a picture for your online dating profile or social media account, your best bet would be to utilize a group picture, if your intention is to appear more attractive.

Therefore, Cindi also proposes the question: are Laker Girls and Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders as attractive as we perceive them to be? They certainly are when they’re collectively together…but Cindi proposes for you to look at them individually and answer the question.

Xoxo,

Chrissy

Dickerson, K. (2013, October 31). Barney Stinson’s ‘Cheerleader Effect’ Is Real – People Look More Attractive In Groups. Retrieved December 27, 2014, from http://www.businessinsider.com/people-look-more-attractive-in-groups-2013-10

Hierarchical Encoding Makes Individuals in a Group Seem More Attractive. (n.d.). Retrieved December 27, 2014, from http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/10/25/0956797613497969.abstract

(n.d.). Retrieved December 27, 2014, from http://www.cnn.com/bleacher-report/

The Cheerleader Effect. (n.d.). Retrieved December 26, 2014, from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-cheerleader-effect/