- Hey! It's Yessica.
And I'm here in the streets of L.A. asking people,
can they figure out who's dating who?
Science says we tend to date
around our same attractiveness level.
We're gonna figure out if that's even a thing.
Let's go!
(upbeat funky instrumental)
You might often hear people say
that a couple just looks right together.
But, are looks really the best way
to judge compatibility?
To answer the question, we brought in six couples,
and asked them: Why are you guys dating?
- I'm Keith.
- And I'm Becky.
- You got a little crumb right here.
- What?
- From your Reuben.
- Get it.
- I got it.
- Is it gone?
- Yeah.
- I think initially we both thought each other was cute.
- Yeah, we're both hot, duh.
- Got great bods, so it's like...
- Fuckin' hot as hell...
- Duh.
- Good sense of humors.
- Mhm.
- Really intelligent.
Completely different interests.
Except for each other.
- Yeah!
Oh, that's a good one.
- Mhm.
- I'm Sophia.
- I'm Tyler.
- So, I always thought Tyler was cute,
but I think it, like,
I wasn't necessarily like, trying to be
in a serious relationship,
and it really just sort of like happened upon us
that we were just like really compatible.
- I'm Jared.
- I'm Brandon.
- And we met on the internet.
- I don't know, you always just have this little...
It's tough, but it keeps it fresh, I like it.
(Jared chuckles)
And your eyes, personality, everything.
The whole nine yards.
- Everything. Everything's attractive.
- I'm Soo-Yen.
- I'm Jeff.
- I think I am definitely
physically attracted to Soo-Yen,
but, I think if you were to only look at a photo of her,
you wouldn't really capture what it is about her
that makes her so attractive.
- Jeffrey has this really sweet and calm nature,
I'm a lot more excitable, and things like that,
and so I really appreciate that he sort of
grounds me in that way,
and that makes me feel really great about
our relationship, and about him.
- I'm Brittney.
- And I'm Steph.
- We met online.
(Steph chuckles)
on a Lesbian dating app.
- Yeah.
- And, it was magic.
- She has a really good sense of humor.
And she's hot.
(Steph chuckles)
- I like blondes, so that was a big plus.
- We actually met on the bus.
She thought I was one of her friend's boyfriends,
and called me the wrong name,
and I had to correct her and let her know
that I'm Sean,
and that little mistake created 20 years
of just happiness.
- It wasn't initial attraction, we were friends first.
- Yes.
- We've only been dating for four of the 20 years.
Though, it was friendship.
We never run out of things to talk about.
- No.
Especially her.
(they laugh)
- [Yessica] Initial physical attractions
seem to play a role in some of the couples' relationships,
but for others, it just wasn't that important.
We grabbed photos from each of the couples,
and went out into the street to see if strangers
could match them based on their
perceived physical attractiveness.
My name is Yessica, what's yours?
- Earljamon.
- Earl. Can I call you Earl?
- Yeah, go for it.
- Or do I have to go both?
- You can do both, you can do either one.
- Okay, I'm gonna call you Earljamon.
Alright, great.
What we're gonna be doing,
is we're playing matchmaker.
- Okay.
- So we have a group of fellows over here,
we have a group of ladies over here,
what I want you to do is just try to
match them up to see who would go with who.
Do you consider yourself maybe a matchmaker?
Do you have that power?
- I believe, listen,
I'm a relationship guru.
- Alright, let's do this first.
- Okay.
- These people have glasses...
- And then throughout the process,
tell me what you're thinking.
- Okay.
Uh, I'm not really thinking anything.
- I would think this guy,
would probably be with this girl right here.
- Okay.
- They look like they'd make a good couple.
- They look adorable.
- For real, for real.
- These two guys here,
which are definitely lovers.
- They're lovers? Okay.
- Their hair looks really good,
so I'm gonna guess that they would like each other.
- Down here, you know,
she's an ice skater maybe.
- Okay.
- Or a schoolteacher!
She used to be an ice skater.
- [Both] But now she's a schoolteacher!
- He's gonna go with her.
- Uh oh.
- Oh yeah!
- We have this guy.
- Uh-huh.
- And this lady here.
- Okay.
- That are married.
- Can I switch up?
- You can switch up.
- Yeah, I think he went with her.
- Okay.
- Yes ma'am.
- Bang.
(laughs)
- Are you just matching them
to see like who would make the cutest babies,
is that what's going on here?
- Well, it's a relationship.
- It's relationships.
- That's hot.
- Awesome.
- And then we have the last couple, right here.
Beautiful match, they'd look like brother and sister but,
they're gonna have 15 kids one day.
(she laughs)
- Alright, so is this your final board?
- It is.
- You wanna show it to the camera?
- Sure.
- Are you proud of it?
Are you proud of it?
- Totally.
- Alright, awesome.
- So what, what kinda, what,
what things were you thinking about
when matching these people together?
- Well, actually I was just looking at the whole like,
face expressions that they're doing.
- Okay.
- 'Cause people tend to attract
to the same type of people.
- Hmm.
- Uh, I just did it by...
I don't know, intuition.
- Intuition?
So why are these guys together?
- I have no idea.
- You got two couples right.
(laughs)
Which is pretty good.
I think you might win,
of getting the most couples.
- Oh, sweet.
- Um, you got three.
So, it turns out people are pretty bad
at matching couples based on appearance.
According to a study at the University of Texas in Austin,
similar levels of physical attraction
play a major role in relationships
when the couples start dating soon after they meet.
But, for couples that start as friends,
matching attractiveness levels
is significantly less important.
That's likely because relationships are complicated.
Personality, age, social attitudes,
and the multitude of other factors
determine true compatibility.
Besides, when we showed people the real couples,
this happened:
You ready to get your mind blown?
- Yes.
- This guy. Boom.
Boom.
- Oh!
- And we go, this guy.
- Wow.
I think they still, they all look happy.
- Oh my gosh,
now these make so much more,
they look like they make so much more sense.
- All these couples make a lot of sense,
it's just, you could see their smiles are alike,
and they just,
really look like they're connected.
- Mm.
- So it's a, it's a beautiful thing to see that.
(upbeat funky music)
- [Blonde Guy] Looks good.
- [Yessica] Yeah?
- [Blonde Guy] Yeah.
- [Yessica] Cool.
- [Blonde Guy] But it's not what I would have chosen, but...
- Okay.
Awesome.
- Okay.
- Great.