Photo: Look Studio / Shutterstock
Quit it!
By Merethe Najjar — Written on Jul 08, 2021
There are endless ways to improve yourself online and boost the way that you’re perceived by others.
From simply smiling more in photos to standing in a certain superhero pose to make yourself feel confident and therefore more attractive to people, the list goes on for some time.
But now, there's something even simpler for us lazy people who want to be more attractive to our dream people without any of the effort of *shudders* going to the gym.
Well, the internet’s got that covered, too, which is pretty awesome.
There’s nothing better than finding out that something you want to happen is already a thing without any extra work on your behalf, right?
Everyone’s always looking for a way to make themselves look better, hotter, skinnier, happier.
The kicker is that there are simple tricks you can employ right now to make yourself more physically attractive to people around you without much effort at all.
How’s that? Well, it might be because you’re accidentally doing things that already make you appear less attractive to others.
And stopping something you’re already guilty of when you know what to fix, is a lot easier than trying to start something you’re unsure of for an even less certain outcome.
So, are you interested in finding out what exactly can make you better just by not doing it?
How are you accidentally sabotaging your own appeal to those that you’re interested in?
Here are 8 things to stop doing if you want to be seen as more attractive:
1. Staying up way too late
This one is harder than it seems because of course we love our sleep, but we also love staying up late and ignoring the bed time we set for ourselves about three hours prior.
But how does rest help you get hotter? Well, they don’t call it “beauty sleep” for nothing.
Way back in 2010, researchers did what they do best and made people rate the attractiveness of others.
They showed photos to participants of people who had and hadn’t slept for at least eight hours the previous night.
The participants not only rated the sleep-deprived souls as less hot, but suggested that they were also “less healthy, and sadder.”
So go to bed early tonight, because otherwise, you come off as a (literal) zombie to that new office hot guy you’ve been flirting with for weeks.
2. Being mean
A few years ago, Chinese researchers did a test by, once more, having a panel of participants harshly and without remorse judge the photos of people who wore their best “neutral” expression.
They also pre-stocked the photos with the words “decent and honest,” or “evil” and “mean.”
Not surprisingly, the photos of people accompanied by words suggesting that they kick puppies got rated as the least attractive.
So, don’t be mean because the perception of "mean" is enough to make you appear less attractive to someone around you.
And nice guys? Keep it up. Because nice is way hotter than "evil."
3. Slouching or crossing your arms
There’s such a thing as the power pose, which can make you feel hyper-confident and is great for making yourself more powerful before an interview or a meeting if you want to exude a certain assurance about yourself.
So, pushing your body outward is good, but pulling your body inward has the opposite effect, it would seem.
Researchers discovered in 2016 that “contractive” body language actually makes your sex appeal circle the drain.
Hunching your shoulders, slumping your body posture, or crossing your arms are all examples of “contractive” language that makes your hot factor drop.
Photos between people with contractive poses and people with the opposite — expansive poses — were posted on a dating site, because researchers have no shame.
But, interestingly enough, the expansive photos were selected far more often than their opposite.
So listen to your mother and sit up straight. It might get you a date.
4. Stressing out
Stressed? Who’s stressed?
Well, according to a 2013 study, women with high levels of cortisone in their bodies — that is, the little hormone that makes your heart race and your fear increase ten-fold — were considered less attractive by judgy hetero men.
Researchers suggested that it’s probably because the presence of lower stress levels give off the appeal of health and fertility, and cortisone counteracts those awesome baby-making waves you’re sending out.
Maybe the researchers should have offered chocolate and a listening ear to those poor ladies instead of making them MORE stressed by having a panel of men judge them.
5. Not showing your emotion in your face
Yeah, in the ways of thinking, this one doesn’t make too much sense.
While men love women who smile more — like, love it — it turns out that women don’t feel the same way about their men.
I guess we want the smoldering, stoic male whose smiles are rare and more meaningful?
Men, on the other hand, don’t want their ladies looking too proud.
According to the 2011 study that probably had men and women at each other’s throats for the obvious sexism they were all displaying, researchers once again brought out their judgmental little pictures and had everyone rate the attractiveness of people within them. (Is this all researchers do?)
Women liked their men displaying pride and not happiness, and men liked their women displaying happiness and not pride.
6. Acting too cool to laugh at people's jokes (or telling your own).
2009 was the year we learned that laughter is important for getting to the next stage of a relationship.
How important?
Well, people who have no sense of humor at all were completely unattractive. Like, completely unattractive.
The study from that year suggested that gender didn’t actually play a role in it at all.
It turns out that everyone hates a person with no sense of humor whatsoever, regardless of who they are.
That baby that didn’t smile when you told him your joke? You’re secretly harboring hatred for him.
So, when you’re meeting people, pay attention to their level of humor and laugh at their jokes.
Try to tell some of your own, if you’ve got them.
You don’t have to be the Joker, but a knock-knock joke now and again couldn’t hurt.
7. Coming off as lazy or unhelpful
Helpfulness is actually pretty sexy, according to a series of experiments by crafty researchers.
In a study based on asking people before and after a six-week archeology course to rate each other’s personality traits, those people who’d turned out to be lazy, unhelpful lumps dug themselves a deeper hole than the people who were even slightly helpful.
Even people who rated as “average” beforehand won themselves some kudos in the attraction department after they proved they were willing to jump in and help.
So offer help when you can, especially to the people who you want to like you because you could give yourself a major bump in the sexiness factors.
8. Lying
For both men and women, this was a universal truth — WE DON’T LIKE DISHONESTY.
A 2006 study had participants read about both men and women and described them in either positive ways or negative ways, suggesting that they were intelligent or not; independent or clingy; honest or a lying sack of crap.
And the result?
Of the three sets of criteria, only honesty had a substantial effect on how attractive they thought people were.
That means that yes, people who lie all the time are literally unattractive to everyone around them.
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