Cheerleader effect/ Group attractiveness effect

Tendency to believe that individuals are more attractive when they are in a group.

Cause

This effect arises due to the interplay of three cognitive phenomena:

• The human visual system takes "ensemble representations" of faces in a group.
• Perception of individuals is biased towards this average.
• Average faces are more attractive, perhaps due to "averaging out of unattractive idiosyncracies".