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BY MAKI SOMOSOT

In print | Published April 23, 2009

This being Swarthmore, there seems to be a myriad of bizarre psychological phenomena on our campus warranting further analysis — the behavioral manifestation of “swakwardness” and the self-defensive physical act of the “Swat swivel,” for example. If the Urban Dictionary entry for “Swoggles” (or the fact that there is an Urban Dictionary entry for “Swoggles” in the first place) is any indication, “Swoggles” should rank chief among them. “Swoggles” is elegantly defined by that aforementioned source as such: “Similar to beer goggles, it is the effect of being around the atrociously ugly people at Swarthmore College. All of a sudden mediocre to ugly people begin to look fuckable.”

Like the unspoken common knowledge that no one here can ever feasibly finish all of their assigned readings, the oft-accepted perception that everyone here is probably not as pretty as they could potentially be is treated like the student body’s dirty secret, hence the “swoggles” phenomenon. A portmanteau of “Swattie” and “goggles,” “swoggles” refers obliquely to the wearing of rose-colored glasses that obscure one’s objective vision about future romantic prospects here at Swarthmore. But is there any factual basis behind this impression that we Swatties have of ourselves? Are we really a less attractive bunch than the population outside the bubble? And have we really been lowering our standards?

The theory of habituation would arguably proffer the closest psychological explanation of “swoggles.” Still, according to Dorwin Cartwright, Professor of Social Theory and Social Action, and Professor of Psychology Barry Schwartz, habituation theory in fact predicts the opposite.

“Imagine that there is a hierarchy of attractiveness when you first arrive on campus, so you of course gravitate towards the people you are most attracted to,” Schwartz said. “But then you habituate towards most people and their level of attractiveness goes down.” By contrast, looking through “swoggles” is commonly thought to cause the relative physical attractiveness of classmates to increase with Swarthmore students’ gradual habituation to one another. This begs the question as to whether “swoggles” is truly a legitimate psychological phenomenon and why this is ultimately so. After all, the tacit rumor that the Swarthmore student population is notorious for its supposedly mediocre-to-nonexistent looks persists for a reason.

“Of course, swoggles are real,” Randall Johnston ’09 said. “It’s not that we’re a particularly unattractive bunch. We just don’t care to learn or take the time to take care of ourselves. And, there are only about 1,500 of us, which leads to a pretty small pool of reasonable possibilities.” The “mere exposure effect” in social psychology probably better explains this paradox of romantic attraction between Swatties. “In a small society like Swarthmore, initial attraction often happens because of natural proximity,” Professor of Social Psychology Etsuko Hoshino-Browne said. “Initially, you may not be attracted to that person, but once you get to know that person, familiarity increases this kind of liking.” Hoshino-Browne also said the relevance of the “insulated” nature of the Swarthmore student body could also play a role in a swoggles effect: “Students don’t get to interact with people outside of Swarthmore, so in a way it’s a kind of pool.” Likewise, because of the intense academic rigor that characterizes the Swarthmore lifestyle, it is significantly less likely that students will spend precious time maintaining and being preoccupied over superficial physical appearance. As a result, the standard norm of physical attractiveness would naturally go down.

Psychology major Karen Guan ’10 states that it would be “easy” to conduct an empirical experiment, which would prove or disprove the swoggles effect. “Social psychologists have done a number of studies examining what features are valued as attractive in the west, like big eyes and prominent cheekbones.” Guan added. “An experimenter could compare strangers’ ratings of attractiveness for photos of randomly selected Swatties versus those of other colleges. If Swatties were found to be less attractive, then ‘swoggles’ might come into play.”

In a party atmosphere, especially, attractiveness standards may decline as a part of ‘alcohol myopia’ — when people under the influence “become nearsighted in terms of environment and focus on what they want,” according to Hoshino-Browne. To test this theory yourself, why not undergo a thorough visual reassessment of all your Paces party regulars, experienced veterans, fresh-faced newbies, and/or those sometime desperados who stand around awkwardly drinking from red cups? (Or if you don’t party or self-inebriate often, then why not apply this mental exercise to the same old faces that you see everyday in your classes?) The key is to observe whether or not these people suddenly begin to present themselves more and more as do-able, romantic possibilities.

“You could imagine that students come to Swarthmore with a standard of comparison that includes the highly attractive people from their previous environments and also celebrity types. As they spend time at Swat, the standard of comparison becomes other Swarthmore students,” Schwartz said. “So someone who may be ordinary in comparison to the universe of other people becomes extraordinary in comparison to the universe of Swarthmore students.”

But just how much of the “swoggles” phenomenon is due to environmental influence, or just to the plain sink-or-swim mentality that in order to get some, you have to lose some? It seems possible that “swoggles” is not so much an effect of habituation as it is a romantic necessity to survive in the general Swarthmore pool. “[Wearing] Swoggles are an integral part of finding happiness in the Swarthmore dating scene,” Chris Wickham ’12 said, who had once berated one of his friends that “[her] standards just weren’t low enough,” while she was “griping” about the lack of eligible straight boys on campus.

Johnston, speaking from her perspective as a seasoned senior, equates the Swarthmore dating pool to a candy store. “[As a first-year] back when the candy store just looked shiny … I couldn’t see all the dirt and grime for all the different flavors.” She added. “As seniors, we see the grime — we either: a) Choose to ignore it by determinedly shoving on our swoggles; b) Run away screaming; or c) Are still sitting outside chewing on our licorice. It’s kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure story.” Maybe the habituation theory only really starts to impose itself as a tragic and depressing reality with time and the accumulated passage of innumerable Paces parties, pseudo-relationships and actually legitimate romantic conquests (failed or otherwise).

Some students are brutally honest about the function of “swoggles” in Swarthmore culture. “I don’t think Swatties are ugly; they’re just unkempt and sometimes a little dirty. But Swoggles are necessary because otherwise you won’t find anyone for a relationship here,” said a taken first-year who preferred to remain anonymous. “And the ones whom you will find will probably be sleeping around.” Here at Swarthmore, the distant romantic future just sounds like a bleak survival-of-the-fittest game, with swoggles as basic artillery at everyone’s disposal.

Then again, it is fair to assume that habituation doesn’t necessarily bring about apathy or enslavement to the generic Paces party routine, but rather the hard-earned, hard-worn truism that beauty is probably just skin-deep. “It is very rare that people stick to physical attractiveness standards, because of individual characteristics like personality,” Hoshino-Browne assured. “There is a matching hypothesis in intimate attraction literature, which shows that people increasingly get attracted to people who are similar to themselves, in terms of intelligence and ideas.” With any luck, lessons that come with age and maturity will eventually pay off our romantic debt to swoggles. But for the interim period, we will agree to sell our souls and consign our jaded scraps of romantic faith to the incoming freshmen class. Fresh. Untainted. Pretty? That remains to be seen.

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