Over at Page 3.14, Katherine highlights a Psychology Today article about the different approaches young men and women have to dating. It's more or less what you expect, but for one eye-popping sentence (emphasis added):
[New Mexico psychology professor Geoffrey] Miller believes boys actually overestimate their mate value during adolescence, and none more so than jocks. "Young men who were captains of the football team graduate thinking they're God's gift to women, and women respond, 'I'm interested in corporate attorneys and well-cited professors. Who the hell are you?' "
Yeah, I really noticed that dynamic, back in the day. I never would've gotten Kate to marry me without a first-author Science paper...
I also noticed that phrase and laughed out loud!
Lol.
Undergraduate ladies are not exactly unknown to crush out on their professors, but I don't suppose that number of citations is exactly the most important thing.
As a non-athlete, I do recall some high-school jocks thinking they were God's gift to mankind, not simply women. Such conclusions, unsupported by most evidence, aren't limited to people who play sports, though.
Katherine: are you suggesting the women were interested not in the number of citations, but in, say, the body of work?
Well cited profs are all the rage these days...the so called 'big man on campus' has been usurped by the academics...
Hmmmm...