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Humans don't evaluate potential partners completely independently of social information.
Research on mate-choice copying and social influence suggests that knowing another person is considered desirable by others can sometimes influence attractiveness judgments.
However, the effect varies with context and doesn't mean people automatically want whoever is popular.
Social information becomes one additional cue among many.
Sometimes we're evaluating the person—and sometimes, without realizing it, we're also noticing how everyone else evaluates them.
© University of St Andrews