A new article in The Economist explains that all those boys you’re intimidated by when you head out to the local bar are, in fact, butt-ugly:
If you have ever sat alone in a bar, depressed by how good-looking everybody else seems to be, take comfort—it may be evolution playing a trick on you. A study just published in Evolution and Human Behavior by Sarah Hill, a psychologist at the University of Texas, Austin, shows that people of both sexes reckon the sexual competition they face is stronger than it really is. She thinks that is useful: it makes people try harder to attract or keep a mate.
Turns out that our minds are programmed by default to take the least risky (and therefore least adventurous) route. In the case of my Friday night, that would mean staying in and playing chinese checkers with Grandma.