( CNN ) -- At best I 'm a 5 . I 'm not complaining . Some of you top out at 4 . Wo n't name names , but I 've seen you walking into Great Clips . Usually when I 'm walking out of Old Navy . So , we 're in this thing together . But , yes , at best I 'm a 5 . On a good day . With poor lighting . At the Gathering of the Juggalos . And I 'm totally OK with my status as a 5 . Because , according to a new study , having average appearance is sexy . GQ has n't called yet about a photo shoot , but I 've laid out my very best cargo shorts just to be safe . This is all based on a theory called The Cheerleader Effect , and it originally spawned from the hit TV show `` How I Met Your Mother , '' when Neil Patrick Harris ' character , Barney Stinson , explained the phenomenon to his friends while admiring patrons in a bar . Barney says , `` The Cheerleader Effect is when a group of women seems hot , but only as a group . Just like with cheerleaders . They seem hot , but take each one of them individually ... sled dogs ! '' Apparently , it 's all about social averaging within a group , where , somehow , the appearance of those who are ugly improves and the appearance of those who are beautiful declines into some sort of perfect middle ground . Basically , the entire group becomes an Applebee 's menu , which is excitingly tasty . At first glance . But that 's what we 're talking about here . That initial appearance . And The Cheerleader Effect definitely applies to both sexes , as was proven by actual researchers at the University of California , San Diego where this real-life study was conducted for both men and women . The results , recently published in the journal Psychological Science , reveal that a good way to boost your overall attractiveness when out in public is to simply surround yourself with other people . Preferably with people you know . `` Heck of a bris , eh ? Hi , I 'm Dave . '' Of course , it all seems rather obvious . In social situations , being surrounded by others makes you more desirable than being a mouth-breathing loner surrounded by self-doubt . But this study is n't about your vibe . It 's about your actual appearance . The lead scientists , Drew Walker and Edward Vul , wrote that people 's faces tend to `` average out '' in a group , making an individual 's overall look less unique than it otherwise would be . Perfect 5s . Which does n't necessarily sound like a good thing . But it is . According to this research , social averaging really is the key to looking good in public settings . Walker explains in the study that , `` Average faces are more attractive , likely due to the averaging out of unattractive idiosyncrasies . Perhaps it 's like Tolstoy 's families : Beautiful people are all alike , but every unattractive person is unattractive in their own way . '' Basically , they surmise that while hanging out in a group does n't necessarily accentuate your supposed good qualities , it does , however , minimize your less attractive features . So that weird Richard Nixon-shaped birthmark on your cheek ... pfft , like it 's not even there ! In fact , the findings showed that people in groups were rated 5.5 % more attractive than when viewed on their own . Which does n't sound like much . But it 's something . To actually test this Cheerleader Effect theory , five experiments were done with over 130 undergraduate students who were shown pictures of 100 people . They were then asked to rate their attractiveness . Some of the people in the pictures were cropped alone , and in other photos they were a part of a group . Ultimately , both women and men were found to be more attractive in the group shots . Of course , once you couple off away from the group , you 're on your own and the truth comes out . `` Is that ... Richard Nixon ? '' So , there 's definitely some merit to the idea of a wingman , or a wingwoman . And the more of them you have , the better . Let 's go bris crashing ! Follow @ JarrettBellini on Twitter .
Going out in groups makes you more attractive than going out alone . The Cheerleader Effect was coined in the hit TV show ` ` How I Met Your Mother '' Faces in a group tend to stick together which , in turn , gives OUT appearance flaws .