When dating apps connect people all around the world, sparking more long-distance relationships than ever, this prompts a fascinating question: does region affect what we find attractive? A new study from NapLab sheds some light on the answers, revealing that location does seem to affect what features Americans find most attractive.

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The survey had 1,012 participants across 50 states. Their approach was straightforward, asking participants three questions: which body part do you find most attractive on others, what is your gender, and what state do you live in? This method allowed the team to map out the results across America, showing us patterns based on location while challenging some of what we thought we knew about universal standards of beauty.

The research reinforced some of what we already know about what different genders find most attractive. For example, men are believed to be most drawn to features associated with fertility. This held true in the NapLab study, showing that 25.82% of men are most attracted to buttocks and 20.60% are most attracted to breasts.

Women are thought to be drawn to more emotional aspects of a relationship, which holds true in what they’re attracted to. The study showed women being most drawn to expressive features, with 26.10% saying they find the face most attractive, 26.09% favoring eyes, and 17.39% answering smile.

This research helps show how factors beyond biology could influence attraction. Climate might play a role, as we can see from Hawaii’s results. Its tropical climate and plentiful beaches mean more skin exposed and a bigger emphasis on physical fitness. Hawaii was the only state in which women found abs most attractive. In some of the rural states, men were predominantly attracted to buttocks. On the opposite end of the spectrum, more conservative states seemed more hesitant to express sexual attraction, stating that they found smiles and eyes most attractive. This indicates that religious background and other cultural norms can affect what people are attracted to or what they admit feeling attracted to.

Despite these variations, there were things that Americans had in common across the nation. Almost no respondents said they were most attracted to skin, feet, or hands. Neck and jawline received zero votes. It seems there are some biologically driven constants that geography doesn’t change.

This research shows that there is no universal agreement on what features are most attractive. There’s already been plenty of scientific research on what we’re biologically attracted to and why, but this study shows other factors might be in play. While some of our feelings are driven by biological impulses, it’s clear that culture, climate, and other regional factors change what we’re attracted to. This is a fun study for couples to discuss together, as well as giving armchair sociologists some food for thought. Find many more intriguing insights in the details of this map!

In 1993, when the Internet became publicly available, the average speed was 14.4 Kb/s, and today, the average speed is 214 Mb/s. These are huge leaps in speed that can be difficult to understand. The team at Ooma shows the progression of this leap with a timeline of Internet speeds year by year. Tracking these Internet speeds can help us understand the technological developments that made this possible and show how the Internet has proliferated in daily life.

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At the top of the timeline, we see Internet speeds throughout the ‘90s at their slowest. Internet users had dial-up modems using phone lines to connect to the web. This was the slowest version of Internet technology we have seen on the timeline. The team provides context for the speed, explaining it would take almost four seconds to download an image of a meme, 11 minutes and 41 seconds to download an MP3 file of a song, and almost 34 hours to download the film, “The Dark Knight.” The peak speed reached in the dial-up era was 44.3 Kb/s. The graph shows significant jumps in speed in 1999, 2005, 2014, and 2022. These jumps occurred mainly due to technological advances, such as the creation of broadband and satellite Internet, as well as the expansion of access to higher speeds.

Context for today’s speeds compared to the past shows that it takes less than a second to download a meme, half a second to download an MP3, and only 8 seconds to download a long movie like “The Dark Knight.” Even though there have been vast improvements, the United States doesn’t have the fastest Internet speeds in the world. Singapore and the United Arab Emirates have higher speeds. The team tells us this is because of America’s vast landmass. It has been a challenge to provide high-speed Internet to rural areas, but there have been big improvements. Thanks to satellite Internet connections, people in more remote areas can have access to higher speeds.

Current projections show that by 2025, most of the world will have Internet access, even in remote areas with less infrastructure. The best equipment will be able to download a terabyte of data in just seconds through the use of fiber-optic cables, which are much faster than coaxial cables.

While there’s been great progress in providing high-speed Internet to rural areas, millions of Americans still don’t have access to high-speed Internet. The challenge is how to connect these locations to broadband. There are countless ways we have seen the Internet improve quality of life for people, from bringing them the ability to use telehealth, to social connections, to remote work opportunities. Timelines like this one from Ooma highlight progress but also remind us of the work that still needs to be done to improve American infrastructure. When we’ve seen such huge leaps in speeds, it’s not fair for some people to lack access to reliable Internet because of where they live.

NapLab looked at a sensitive topic for Americans everywhere by mapping survey results, which expose where people have engaged in and experienced the most infidelity. We can see from the results that cheating is, unfortunately, a very common experience, at least for the people who responded to the survey.

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The team’s data yields some surprising results. For example, 100% of respondents in North Carolina, Kentucky, and Alaska said they had cheated or been cheated on. Overall, in every state, over half the respondents said they have been cheated on. These are some hefty statistics.

Overall, these states ranked highest with residents most likely to cheat:

• Hawaii
• Louisiana
• Rhode Island
• Delaware
• Wyoming
• New Hampshire
• Maine
• North Carolina
• New Mexico
• Utah

These are the states where people are most likely to be cheated on:

• Kentucky
• Alaska
• Maryland
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Michigan
• West Virginia
• Oklahoma
• Maine
• South Carolina

Studies like this one can help us take steps to understand why infidelity occurs. Infidelity can be tricky to even define. Some may consider emotional involvement to be cheating, while others only consider physical romantic acts to be cheating. In other relationships, physical acts outside the relationship are acceptable as long as both partners are comfortable with them and the behavior stays within certain boundaries defined by the couple.

The data shows an interesting pattern, which is that more people reported being cheated on than cheating. This makes sense as cheating usually comes with a sense of shame. Not everyone admits to having cheated, but those who have been cheated on feel a sense of pain and outrage that makes them more likely to share their experience. Another interesting pattern is that the number of people who have self-reported that they cheated and have been cheated on is similar. That implies that many people have been both the cheater and the victim. How might that affect someone’s views on infidelity? The survey certainly leads to many more interesting questions.

People cheat for many varied reasons, including personal choices, social pressures, cultural norms, and dissatisfaction. Some couples say financial stress pushes them apart and builds resentment. The data may show some evidence for this, as low-income states like Kentucky and Louisiana rank highly on the list.

The team’s study leads to many more interesting questions to examine. For example, does age have anything to do with cheating rates? Studies seem to indicate it’s a yes. There have also been studies centered on gender, finding that men are more likely to cheat than women. Cultural factors are certainly impactful. A lot of research shows religious couples are less likely to cheat on one another, and the same is true in more conservative regions. This could be an inaccurate depiction, though, since stronger shame and taboos will make people more likely to carefully hide their infidelity and not admit to it. There’s no doubt that this study is a thought-provoking one.