How Attractive Are You Really?

#1 Let's get real, appearances matter.

One of the most common New Year resolutions is to eat less and exercise more.

Regardless of age, wanting to be attractive is universal. We all want to be hot. But, how do you know if you are?

On a scale of one to 10, how would you rate yourself?

If you're typical of the general population, whatever number you assign won't reflect your true worth because most of us aren't even close to objective when judging our own looks.

We're fickle - one minute we think we look great, the next we don't.

One reason why our perception of ourselves is flawed is because we fail to look at the big picture - whereas people looking in on us do. But there a few ways to work out where you sit on the attractiveness scale. See how you score for yourself!

#2 When in doubt, ask!

We obviously don't want to ask a douchebag, but most times people will be honest. If you want super real honesty.... ask a kid. They will tell you straight off.

You can also use others social cues to rate yourself. If you're sitting alone on a crowded subway when you're by yourself, chances are you're in the extremes ranges of the attractive scale.

Also, look for eye contact from the people you're passing. A general rule the number of people who make eye contact with you is your rating. Say you pass ten guys you make eye contact with and 6 are eyeing you too, you're a 6. Another variation of this is to lounge in an area, say you're on a coffee break at work, and watch how many passengers in passing cars are looking your way. If you get a craner, you have a definite yes. Guys don't really crane though. They know it's way toooo obvious.

And due to social dynamics, we tend to date people very similar in scale to ourselves. Rate your partner and/or your exs, average them together and there you have it, your rating. Don't worry though, there are still more ways that are a bit more concrete.

#3 Take a look for yourself from another's perspective.

Oh, wait. We can't really do that, but here's how to be more objective in judging yourself. Time plays a factor in how we rate ourselves. Past research has found that the passage of time helps people to view their own appearance or actions much more abstractly. If you see a photo or a video of yourself from yesterday, you might judge it harshly. But when you see a photo or video of yourself from months or years ago, you evaluate it with fresher eyes, more like a stranger would.

So they carried out a series of experiments to test whether the passage of time could help people have a more accurate idea of what other people thought of them. What the team found was that students who were told that their photograph would be rated several months later were much more accurate at predicting how other people would rate their attractiveness. They also found that people used more specific details when predicting how their appearance would be evaluated in the near future -- "looks tired" or "hair tied in a pony tail" -- and more general details when predicting how their appearance would be evaluated in the distant future -- "Asian" or "wears glasses."

Take a stab at looking at yourself from a "stranger" perspective.

#4 Take in the bad with the good.

Social comparison is also often used to assess how attractive one is. Unfortunately, many people do not use social comparison appropriately for this purpose.

To get an idea of how attractive you are relative to others, you must look at people more attractive than you and those you consider less attractive. The problem is that many people only compare upwards -- to those people who are above average in attractiveness. Repeatedly noting that you are not as attractive as another person is useless and biased in terms of the information it gives you. For example, let's say you are a six out of 10 in terms of attractiveness. If you only compare yourself to those who are eight or more, then you will conclude that you are less attractive than you actually are. Sadly, mass media tends to artificially set up such constant, biased comparisons.

#5 Hallelujah, there's an app for that!

You could also use the internet and apps to assist in rating yourself. Anaface and Blinq will anonymously rate your uploaded picture and let the A.I. give you the news. Mine was bad, maybe your's will be better!