Study shows that daters prefer hotties

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EVANSTON, Ill., Jan. 5 (UPI) -- Research released Thursday from Northwestern University and Texas A&M University suggests you may be more concerned with outer beauty than you think.

In a study aimed at measuring people's implicit, split-second responses, participants were asked to quickly sort synonyms of "physical attractiveness" with other words that they happen to like, such as romance novels, motorcycles or tequila. Their reaction time to each word was measured so as to reflect their implied responses.

Eli Finkel, associate professor of psychology at Northwestern co-authored the study.

"People will readily tell you what they value in a romantic partner," he told Northwestern University News. "But study after study shows that those preferences don't predict whom daters are actually attracted to when they meet flesh-and-blood partners. Now we can get under the hood with this quirky methodology to see what people actually prefer in live-interaction settings."

Paul Eastwick, assistant professor of psychology at Texas A&M University, is lead author of the study.

"If a person tells me, for example, that she doesn't care about how attractive a guy is, our research suggests that her claim isn't worth all that much," he said.