Why do ugly men chase beautiful women?

A new study confirms common sense: no matter how bad a man is, he will think he can win the heart of a beautiful woman.

In a scene from Knocked Up, Seth Rogen's character drunkenly mutters to Katherine Heigl:

"You're prettier than me!" A recent study confirms a common sense: no matter how bad a man is, he will think he can win the heart of a beautiful woman. The researchers looked at the scores and dates of 16,550 members over a 10-day period in 2005. All subjects had normal sexual orientation, with 75% being male and 25% being female.

Based on these data, researchers believe that men value the appearance of their future partners more than women.

Men are less likely than women to consider that their lack of attractiveness — whether perceived by themselves or by others — will prevent them from dating "attractive" people.

Maybe men think that women have read the story of "The Frog Prince" and remembered it, so we women can pursue the inner beauty of men and ignore their ugly appearance.

Or, men internalize messages from the mass media: movies like Knocked Up, where a slacker wins the heart of a beautiful woman; TV shows like According to Jim, where a troubled, awful man marries a beautiful wife.

Leonard Lee, an associate professor at Columbia Business School and the study's lead author, believes that the mismatched couples in movies and TV shows may explain why seemingly hapless men have such high expectations. But he wondered whether those less attractive men would eventually understand that, in reality, their chances were slim. The study also found that people born at the beginning of the century only want to date people born at the beginning of the century.

Data from HOTorNOT.com suggests that men need to learn to accept their limitations:

They should obviously invite more dates to increase their chances of success. In fact, the men in the study asked for dates 2.4 times more often than the women. The researchers didn't look at how many of these online hookups were successful, but rather at the number of dates that were mostly initiated by men, which may be a sign that unattractive women - and even men - are content to date members of the opposite sex who have a similar "attractiveness" index to themselves.

"Beautiful people always pursue beautiful people," said Helen Fisher, another scholar outside the study and a professor at Rutgers University who specializes in mating behavior and romantic love.

"Ultimately, men are discovering that their own beauty isn't as important as women's beauty. They're discovering that even though they're selling a lot of things that women want, it doesn't make them attractive."

"Ultimately, men are discovering that their own beauty isn't as important as women's beauty. They're discovering that even though they're selling a lot of things that women want, it doesn't make them attractive."

“Men can reach for the stars and chase their dreams,” said William Pollack, a Harvard psychologist and director of the Center for Men and Young Men at McLean Hospital, “but only women can get pregnant, so they need to be a little more selective.

Finally, there are perhaps some signs that vulgar men are finding themselves over the top—and this is reflected in the extent of their bragging.

When a truly attractive man wants a date," Brody says, "he's going to be much calmer and more careful. “He would think carefully and try to get to know me before asking me out. ” she added.