The following story is from the BBC website. Is
this another blow against the invisible hand?
Daljit
>
> Forwarded message:
>
> Beautiful people are ruining others' chances of
> happiness.
>
> At least, that is the conclusion of
> mathematicians, who have found out what
> many people have known for years: personality
> is more important than looks.
>
> Unrealistic expectations of finding a partner with
> film star good looks are creating an unhappy
> society, says the report.
>
> Instead of fantasising about George Clooney or
> Jennifer Lopez, people would be better off picking
> a partner according to random personal preferences.
>
> The research, reported in New Scientist
> magazine, is based on a mathematical model
> that gauges the happiness of society based on
> the way people pair up.
>
> The test, originally invented in the 1960s by
> researchers at the University of California,
> showed that if people were ranked randomly
> for attractiveness, everyone should be able to
> end up with a reasonably satisfactory partner.
>
> 'Vogue factor'
>
> But two other mathematicians decided the test
> was unrealistic in a society bombarded with
> images of the ideal man and woman.
>
> Guido Caldarelli, from the University of Rome,
> and Andrea Capocci, from Fribourg University
> in Switzerland decided to put beauty into the
> equation.
>
> They devised a new test, with a "Vogue
> factor", by which some people were considered
> intrinsically more attractive and
> desirable than others.
>
> Each computer-generated person in the model
> as given an intrinsic beauty, and a weighting
> factor U was introduced which determined how
> much influence beauty had on society.
>
> When U equalled zero, as in the 1960 test, all
> 1,000 people in the test found a partner
> ranked at 70 or better in their list of
> preferences.
>
> Unhappy society?
>
> But when U was even slightly greater than
> zero, the best-looking people rose to the top
> of everyone's wish list. In this case, even an
> averagely attractive person might have to
> make do with someone they judge no more
> than 900th on the beauty list.
>
> As a result, society became measurably
> miserable. Only the lucky beautiful few
> found what they wanted.
>
> Dr Caldarelli, interviewed in New Scientist
> magazine, said: "Even if the more beautiful players
> have a larger satisfaction by
> far, the general dissatisfaction in the system
> increases.
>
> "When the concept of 'most beautiful' in the
> world tends to be the same for everyone, it
> becomes more and more difficult to make more
> people happy."
>
>
