average person

created by Agthorr

(person) by Agthorr (2.5 y) (print) ? I like it! Fri Apr 07 2000 at 1:22:30

The average person is a hypothetical person who possesses no distinguishing characteristics. Rather, they are a lowest common denominator.

The average person is decidedly not a mathematical average. If they were, they would have a fractional number of children. This would make them decidedly unaverage.

In reality, there are no average people. Every person is an individual with their own distinguishing characteristics. This makes the idea of an average person somewhat amusing.

(idea) by ansate (2.6 y) (print) ? I like it! Fri Apr 07 2000 at 3:26:14

experiments have been performed in which photographs of all sorts of women were taken, and systematically combined in such a way that their facial features (length of nose, width of eyes, etc.) would be averaged together at varying degrees with varying numbers of photographs. for example, the first level would be an unaltered photograph. the next would be two sets of features averaged together to make one face. then four, then eight. and so on.

these pictures were then shown to males, who were asked to rate the women on how "attractive" they were. as the features became more averaged, a higher percentage of males found the faces more attractive. so hypothetically, the most average female in regards to physical features would be the most sought-after woman on earth.

biologists theorize that this is related mainly to genetics and natural selection. people generally chose others who are "normal" in appearance (i.e. don't have deformities like hunchbacks or whatever) because there is an ancient built-in reproductive mechanism that drives organisms to mate with the healthiest candidate available. not only does this reduce the risk of disease to the organism in question, but it also decreases the likelihood of deleterious genes popping up in the offspring.

it's all about survival, dudes. better start looking so-so.

printable version
chaos

height	Because I dig you	distinguishing characteristics	I'm just so tired of waking up all alone
When discussing philosophy, please don't mention The Matrix	Looking up a word by its definition	Lowest common denominator	Being average is rare
E2 guide to music you've never heard of	attractive	amusing	Decidedly
Digital Fortress	First They Came for the Jews	millionaires	mediocre
Average	diversity	straw man	straw
commoner	limerick vs haiku	style	mean

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