Science Explains Why We Love Assholes

Bad news for the Aidans of the world: Science has now confirmed that nice guys do indeed finish last. 

A five-part study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin last month took a deep dive into the subject of self-confidence, conveyed via personal online dating profiles. The results: "Perceived confidence predicted increased romantic desirability."

In other words, we all want to bang Scott Disick.

The competitive edge: This study was based on the concept of overconfidence, which the researchers measured by how likely participants were to just make shit up when answering questions about obscure topics they knew nothing about. Out of the 3,000 male and female participants, those with the overconfident answers ended up creating higher-rated online dating profiles than those who answered honestly.

But the real kicker of the study is how people of average confidence viewed their overconfident peers on the dating market. It found that both males and females backed off from pursuing potential mates when they perceived their competition as more confident than they were.

"Overconfidence might confer an advantage in intrasexual competition," the researches wrote. "People were less likely to compete with overconfident individuals by virtue of their perceived confidence and arrogance."

So basically, the reason why so many of us end up with jerks is because the good guys often see the jerks as competition, assume that they don't stack up and just drop out of the running.

We already knew this: It's not surprising that yet another study has proven that confidence is appealing. But scientific research isn't really all that necessary when you consider that pop culture has perpetuated this trope for years. From Sandy swooning over Danny in Grease to Carrie going berserk for Big in Sex and the City to the "real-life" saga of Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick, we're all familiar with the weird powers bad boys can have over our emotions.

But while this study is based purely on initial attraction, we're guessing that actually settling down with an asshole probably wouldn't be the most rewarding life choice. After all, Kourtney and Scott are currently in the midst of a brutal public spat (as per usual). And does anyone really think that Big and Carrie would have been able to make their relationship last IRL? 

On second thought, maybe the nice guys shouldn't give up so quickly. 

h/t Huffington Post