Good qualities everyone looks for:
Attractiveness - eye candy, universal acceptance, pleasing
Interesting - edgy, doesn't quite make sense, something is intriguing
Stimulating - has something to say, provides "content" in our lives
- Everybody wants a partner who is very attractive, and this most often means we want someone more attractive than we are. However if we start dating them they might not be as satisfied with us.
- Everbody wants a partner who is very interesting, and this most often means we want someone more interesting than we are. However if we start dating them they might not be as interested in us.
- Everybody wants a partner who is very stimulating, and this most often means we want someone more stimulating than we are. However if we start dating them they might not be as stimulated by us.
In addition to all that, we all have long-term personal goals (marriage, family, lifelong debauchery) and then we have impulses. I may eat healthy and exercise but every now and then I get the whopper. Sometimes I get the whopper all week long. If I have the metabolism of a hummingbird I can get the whopper whenever the hell I want and not pay for it in the waistline. In the same way, if I am attractive, interesting, and stimulating enough, I can fuck around town all I want and never pay for it by losing out on long-term relationships and nice "sweet" girls. Most people have extremely short memories anyway; if it happened 5 years ago, it might as well have not happened at all.
The equilibrium is that life is quite boring; we're all sitting here on this little blue ball trying to come up with shit to do. The people that entertain us the most get our highest favor as potential mates. The best actors and entertainers also happen to be the best salespeople, and in relationships it's true to some extent that you're selling yourself. Nice guys who are otherwise attractive, interesting, and stimulating (a huge minority) are selling something valuable. The problem is they don't advertise as much, they aren't "in your face." Unfortunately, nice guys who are otherwise total assholes (a huge majority) and have nothing to give might not advertise either. Assholes who advertise themselves (a huge majority) may have nothing to give EXCEPT attractiveness and at least brief stimulation, and 2 out of three aint bad I suppose.
This is why almost all attractive stimulating people ( who may or may not be all that interesting) go through the "player" phase, because they CAN and there's no consequences. All the nice people they've been ignoring will still always jump at the chance to be with them if they show the nice person attention. It's why if gwyneth paltrow really wanted to date a guy, almost all guys would drop their girlfriends for her. Wow that's a lot of typing.