So is the takeaway that in the abstract people think that 9/10 means 90th percentile, but when people rate others they actually rate them on a normal distribution?
Possible cause of discrepancy: male variability is higher than female variability, and thus the decile system may be an accurate reflection of quantifiable facial maladies. (but please don't go full "face rater" grift mode, ML would be enough to test this) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variability_hypothesis
I, too, have contemplated this same question. I’m never sure what anyone means by a 1-10 appearance scale and what they’re norming their very subjective assessment on.
So is the takeaway that in the abstract people think that 9/10 means 90th percentile, but when people rate others they actually rate them on a normal distribution?
Yeah, something like that.
IME, people are bad at percentages (see e.g. https://mobile.twitter.com/StefanFSchubert/status/1499314417565061120), so I'm not sure you get meaningful results by asking what percentiles the 0/10 ratings correspond to.
Imagine if this happens because of certain perceptive biases, as if there is a Dunning-Kruger Effect for population estimation, and what is ugly is forgettable? Would this be tied to the Berkson's Paradox (more attractive people are perceived as more famous/intelligent/dominant)? https://noahcarl.substack.com/p/why-do-people-overestimate-the-size http://haines-lab.com/post/2021-01-10-modeling-classic-effects-dunning-kruger/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJ907Aa7TYE
Side note: it is more or less that these biases may be decoupled with physical reality, but represents sociological reality well enough, and that minorities have disproportionate amount of both political power and attention (see Nassim Taleb's "Minority Rule" principle), which explains why "the 10%" or "the 25%" is such a focus for social change. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_square_root_law https://atlasgeographica.com/the-minority-rule-explained/ https://archive.ph/xsREs https://archive.ph/rzlsw https://fs.blog/critical-mass/ https://archive.ph/fbS7P
Prediction: women have more cognitive bias when it comes to grading men by deciles, effectively using the decile as a "passing grade" system, while men are more honest about matching quantile to reality. Even though the response multipliers of the increasing attractiveness decile are similar, due to such a bias, there is great inequality of female response for men. https://goldvalueideas.com/2021/03/17/sex-differences-in-romantic-selectiveness/ https://www.gwern.net/docs/psychology/okcupid/yourlooksandyourinbox.html
Possible cause of discrepancy: male variability is higher than female variability, and thus the decile system may be an accurate reflection of quantifiable facial maladies. (but please don't go full "face rater" grift mode, ML would be enough to test this) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variability_hypothesis
I, too, have contemplated this same question. I’m never sure what anyone means by a 1-10 appearance scale and what they’re norming their very subjective assessment on.