Fabio effect


The '''Fabio Effect''' is a modern sociological and looksmaxxing term coined by [[Aramar Jadavra|Mikey Blayze]] and the Incel Wiki Team, describing the observed phenomenon where certain [[men]], particularly those with a "[[pretty boy]]" or exotic aesthetic, receive a dramatically higher level of positive treatment, desirability, and sexual success in real-life (IRL) social interactions than their numerical scores on anonymous online rating platforms (such as Photofeeler and Photoeval primarily as well as generally online) would predict. The effect is characterized by a significant difference between a man's IRL perceived value and his anonymous online rating.
[[File:Fabio Lanzoni 2014.jpg|thumb|300x300px|Fabio Lanzoni]]
The converse phenomenon, where a man receives treatment far below what his high anonymous ratings would suggest, is known as the **Anti-Fabio Effect**.
==Etymology==
The term is named after '''Fabio Lanzoni''', the Italian-born male supermodel who achieved unprecedented commercial success and widespread recognition as a male sex symbol throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The naming originates from the observation that while Fabio is the most successful male model in history by a wide margin, his scores on anonymous rating sites, while high, are '''not''' the top-tier "9.5/10" or "10/10" scores one might expect. Furthermore, numerous online forums feature threads from women who subjectively rate him as "overrated" or even "ugly," creating a stark contrast between his quantifiable online scores, subjective online opinions, and his verified, massive IRL appeal.<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/VindictaRateCelebs/comments/1fgdbq5/how_would_you_rate_fabio</ref>
==Characteristics & demographics==
Men who experience the Fabio Effect typically share a common set of traits that are believed to be more potent in dynamic, real-world settings than in static, anonymous photo analysis:

*   **Pretty Boy Aesthetic:** A strong emphasis on neoteny (youthful features), softer facial lines, and "beauty" over hyper-masculine, rugged features often favored in online male spaces.
*   **Specific Phenotypes:** The effect is most frequently observed in men of mixed-race or Southern European descent (e.g., Italian, Spanish, Portuguese) who possess an olive or tanned complexion, dark hair, and light eyes. However, it is not exclusive to these groups.
*   **Vibe and Presence:** The effect is heavily dependent on a man's overall daily "aura"—confidence, style, grooming, [[voice]], [[Body odor|scent]], and [[body language]] etc.—which cannot be captured in a anonymous photo rating.
*   **The "Uncanny Valley" of Male Models:** Fabio Effect recipients looks are often described as "lower-tier male model" at best on rating sites, and often lack the extreme, [[facial masculinity]] that anonymous online forums designate as "[[Chad]]" or "[[GigaChad]]."
In fact Fabio Lanzoni himself is described like this. One female [[reddit]] user Melodic-Law-3863 writes, 

"He's not an ugly person by any means, but he seems to me to be that category of hyper masculine man who mainly pleases the eyes of other men and who men wish they could be (like Cristiano Ronaldo). I feel like he'd be very desirable and sought-after in a [[Homosexuality|gay]] nightclub, but he wouldn't get so much attention from [[Femoid|women]], so it's difficult for me to evaluate."

==Classic examples of the fabio effect==
*   **Fabio Lanzoni:** The namesake. His IRL status as a generational sex symbol among women vastly outpaces his anonymous online ratings.
*   **Roman Campolo:** An artist of Italian descent from Cincinnati, Ohio. Despite being rated online as merely "attractive" or "lower-tier model," his IRL appeal was so potent that successful singer Ali Tamposi (net worth ~$20 million) cold-approached him in a supermarket and introduced him to her parents on the same day, a modern "male Cinderella" story similar to [[Jeremy Meeks]] getting beautiful billionaire Chloe Green pregnant but without the crime backstory. Campolo while being a high school football wide receiver and having muscles but by no means was he ever hyper muscular, to the point of online male model memes, was actually the most muscular guy and only high school football player with massive in real life appeal through out the city.
*   **Clark Gable:** The classic Hollywood icon and sex symbol of his era. Still shots of Gable from films like *Gone with the Wind* receiving surprisingly abysmal scores on modern anonymous rating sites, highlighting the temporal and contextual nature of the effect.
*   **Michael Keith Gresham (Guido Guap):** A convicted murderer and former SoundCloud rapper from Cincinnati. Despite being 5'7", Gresham was documented to have an overwhelming IRL presence, with a group of close to a dozen teen girls flocking to him in the mall like a celebrity. He was most popular among both white and black girls. His extreme neotenous, pretty-boy looks translated poorly to anonymous rating sites where he was often dismissed.
*   **Mikey Blayze Himself:** A 6ft 2 SoundCloud artist and author, also from Cincinnati. Documented as being widely known and desired throughout the city's black female population in his youth, with numerous IRL feats of extreme female attention, such as an a attractive black woman going up to him propositioning him for sex, being compared facially to Gresham, as well as many other notable people especially mixed race celebrities, girls stalking him in the mall, girls pinning him against the locker at his high school more than once just to feel his head hair, and in a group in one case, and many other more minor in real life feats due explicitly to his appearance. 

While his best photos score a strong 7/10 on Photofeeler which is a statistical outlier, on rating sites not like how in real life calling someone a 7 is just a polite way of saying they are a 5. His scores on the sister site PhotoEval are reportedly much lower, abysmal in fact solidifying his status as a Fabio Effect recipient. A recurring theme in his experience was being told by women that he "should be a model" and assuming he already was one. This public perception, however, clashed directly with the reality of the professional modeling world. Upon visiting a local agency (Wings Model Management), Blayze observed that the male models present did not embody the "pretty boy" aesthetic he was celebrated for in Cincinnati. Instead, the roster consisted almost exclusively of tall men with hyper-masculine facial bone structure—chiseled [[Jaw is law|jaws]], prominent [[Brow ridge|brow ridges]] etc.

He described them as resembling NFL players in suits, but without the extreme [[Muscle theory|muscle]] mass. This observation points to the core reason for the disconnect, The Male Gaze of Commercial Modeling, the primary function of most high-[[fashion]] and commercial male models is not to be objectified by women, but to sell products to men. They are hired to embody an ideal of male success—[[Dominance hierarchy|dominance]], power, and social status—that appeals to male consumers' aspirations. A softer-faced "pretty boy" does not command this type of brand loyalty for products like luxury watches, suits, or cologne in the same way a hyper-masculine "[[Chad]]" archetype does. 

The entertainment and modeling industries are, as Blayze noted, disproportionately influenced by gay male directors, photographers, and designers. While tastes are diverse, there is a documented tendency within this demographic to favor extreme facial masculinity and overt sexuality in male models, which often differs from the more varied preferences expressed by women in uncontrolled, real-life settings.

This disconnect is further exemplified by the covers of romance novels. Despite being a genre written by women for women, the male cover models are invariably hyper-masculine and heavily muscular—a polar opposite to the "beautiful, waif-like pretty boys" and K-pop like idols that generate massive real-world female fervor. This suggests that the industry (publishing, in this case) operates on a stale, top-down archetype of male desirability ("mechanical, text-based porn archetypes") rather than responding to the organic, bottom-up appeal of aesthetics that actually thrive in social environments. Female consumers, therefore, often passively consume the Fabio like male image the industry provides, which doesn't reflect their demonstrated IRL preferences.

Blayze's foray into modeling was brief. He completed one paid ($300) photoshoot found on Craigslist and began building a portfolio but ultimately abandoned the pursuit due to adverse life circumstances and a lack of familial support. His experience underscores a key tenet of the Fabio Effect: the men who are most desired within a local social context ("Cincinnati's Finest") often possess an aesthetic that the professional modeling industry, governed by different economic and cultural rules, has little use for. His high IRL treatment, juxtaposed with his low photoeval albeit high [[photofeeler]] scores and his incompatibility with industry standards, solidifies his status as a classic recipient of the effect.

*   **Wodaabe Tribe Men:** The men of the Wodaabe tribe of Niger are famous for their elaborate male beauty pageants (Gerewol). Winners are celebrated as the absolute most physically attractive men in their culture. However, when their photos are rated on anonymous rating sites, they are consistently rated as average, demonstrating the cultural and IRL contextual component of the effect.

*   **Pseudo-Example:** Johnny Depp 
The case of Johnny Depp presents a fascinating and nuanced pseudo-example of the Fabio Effect, demonstrating how context is everything.

Initial data seemed to perfectly encapsulate the phenomenon. In a headshot from Don Juan DeMarco (1994)—the film that solidified his status as a generation-defining heartthrob—Depp's [[Photofeeler]] score was a surprisingly middling [[Brad|6/10]]. Similarly, the opening scene shot of his iconic Captain Jack Sparrow from the first Pirates of the Caribbean film also netted a 6/10. This created a clear Fabio Effect dichotomy: a man catapulted to the pinnacle of real-world desirability based on a performance where his static image scored merely "moderately above average."

This suggested a strong Fabio Effect: his appeal in these roles was not contained in a frozen frame but was a product of his dynamic performance, character, and the "vibe" he exuded—the charismatic, smoldering confidence of Don Juan and the eccentric, unpredictable swagger of Jack Sparrow. His appeal was architectural, built upon an objective foundation but powered by motion and persona.

However, further testing complicated this neat classification. When rated on photos outside of his film roles—specifically, a very young headshot and a middle-aged press photo—Depp's scores skyrocketed. He reportedly reached the PhotoEval all-time leaderboard with the very young photo and achieved a near-mythical 10/10 on Photofeeler with his middle aged photo.

This reveals a critical refinement of the Fabio Effect:

The Objective Foundation is Unquestionable: Depp, in optimal conditions with styling, objectively possessed a foundation of genetic fitness that could score in the highest possible percentiles. He was, by any measure, genetically gifted.

The "Fabio" Element is Contextual: The Fabio Effect here is not that he was universally underrated by static images like the full examples, but that his appeal in specific, culturally significant roles was vastly greater than what a static image from that very same role would suggest. The 6/10 score for Don Juan is not a rating of Johnny Depp's fundamental attractiveness; it is a rating of a single frame of a character he was playing.

This creates a "Small Fabio Effect" specific to the context of his film roles. The disconnect is not between his true looks and his scores, but between the power of his performed persona and the limitations of a static image. Women didn't fall in love with a 6/10 photo; they fell in love with a moving, talking, charismatic character portrayed by a man who, in other contexts, could easily be a 10/10. The performance built an architectural masterpiece on top of his foundation that a single screenshot could not capture.

Therefore, Johnny Depp is a borderline case. He proves that the Fabio Effect is not always about a man's base appearance being undervalued online, but can sometimes be about the inability of a static rating to capture the catalytic power of context, character, and motion—the very things that transform objective beauty into iconic desirability.

*   **Pseudo-Example:** Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber presents a compelling, if complex, pseudo-example of the Fabio Effect, one that highlights how the phenomenon can be tightly bound to a specific time, aesthetic, and cultural moment.

The data point is stark: despite being one of the most globally recognized male celebrities of the 21st century, whose initial meteoric rise was explicitly and undeniably fueled by his physical attractiveness to a young female demographic, Bieber has historically performed poorly on aggregated, reflective polls. Specifically, he was ranked extremely low on a Ranker.com "All Time Hottest Male Musicians" list back when it was sortable by women's votes, and failing to even break the top 100, on ranker.com's hottest male celebrities of all time list, while contemporaries like Nick Jonas and the Sprouse brothers ranked significantly higher, despite being no where near as popular as Justin Bieber was.

This creates a clear Fabio Effect dichotomy:

IRL Treatment (Prime "Baby" Era): Unprecedented, global-scale female hysteria. "Bieber Fever" was a cultural phenomenon defined by intense, real-world female adoration, screaming crowds, and a level of visibility and success that far eclipsed his peers.

Anonymous/Retrospective Rating (Prime "Pretty Boy" Era): A middling ~5.8 on PhotoEval for a prime-era photo, and a conspicuous absence from the upper echelons of "all-time hottest" lists voted on by women. Bieber is considered a pseudo example currently because its likely his most absolute glamourized photos of his prime era will score higher than the middling 5.8 e got on a glamourized but not absolute most glamourized photo especially on [[photofeeler]] and an example at all because of his low scores on ranker.com

*   **Pseudo-Example:** Facebook User Matthew Brown
Matthew Brown serves as a near-perfect case study to isolate and demonstrate the core mechanism of the Fabio Effect: the critical importance of social context over anonymous judgment.

The data is a clean, controlled experiment<ref>https://imgur.com/a/AElJFuO</ref>:

On Anonymous Rating Site (PhotoEval): A headshot photo of Matthew receives a dead-average 5/10 in facial attractiveness. He has hyper-neotenous features—extreme youthfulness, round face, large "doe eyes," blonde hair, and white skin. 

On Social Media (Facebook): although not quite real life, it is a public and non anonymous platform, hence the reason he is a pseudo example. The exact same photo receives over 300 likes, heart emojis, and explicit sexual commentary from female users. The comments included direct propositions for sex and even girls tagging his mother to ask for sexual permission. This is a massive, quantifiable positive response. The comments on Facebook represent an authentic, holistic reaction. The women are not rating his facial harmony in isolation; they are responding to the entire "vibe" of the person in the photo—his youthful innocence, his approachable prettiness, and the specific fantasy his look evokes. This is the architectural "building" of attraction in action.

Matthew Brown's case proves that the Fabio Effect is not an error in measurement but a revelation about human nature. Attractiveness is not a fixed score but a potential that is activated by the right social context. A man can possess a aesthetic that is utterly magnetic in a real-world, socially-connected environment (like a Facebook feed or a high school) while simultaneously testing as "perfectly average" in a vacuum. The effect is named for Fabio, but it is defined by cases like this: the power of presence over a picture.
==The Anti-Fabio Effect==
The **Anti-Fabio Effect** is the direct inverse of the Fabio Effect. It describes a situation where a man possesses physical traits that score very highly (often 8/10 or 9/10) on anonymous rating sites—frequently aligning with the hyper-masculine, "Chad" ideal popular in online forums—but receives little to no positive attention, respect, or sexual success in real-world interactions.

This effect is most commonly associated with men from the "incel" (involuntary celibate) or "fakecel" (a man who looks like a "Chad" but has the dating life of an incel) communities. It is theorized that this disconnect is caused by severely deficient social skills, crippling anxiety, a repellent personality, or a negative aura that completely negates their physical advantages.

*   **Classic Examples: [[Ike Odukwe]]:** Odukwe consistently scores between 8-9/10 from female raters on anonymous sites over many years. He is tall, muscular, and possesses a deep, resonant voice—physically embodying the "GigaTyrone" ideal. Despite this, he reports a complete lack of a dating or social life, epitomizing the Anti-Fabio Effect where his online rating had zero correlation with real-life outcome.

*   **Paul Janka:**

Paul Janka, Perhaps the most famous example. A former New York City pickup artist who gained notoriety in the mid-2000s, exemplifies the Anti-Fabio Effect. Photographs of Janka consistently scored highly, often in the 8–9/10 range on rating platforms such as Photofeeler, with his tall frame, symmetrical facial structure, and polished appearance leading many to describe him as “male model tier.” In anonymous online environments, Janka embodied the archetype of the photogenic “Chad.”

However, his real-life outcomes told a different story. Unlike Fabio Effect men, who receive unsolicited attention and organic female pursuit, Janka’s dating life was entirely reliant on the aggressive pursuit strategies he outlined in his “daygame” routines. He became infamous for keeping a spreadsheet of hundreds of women’s numbers, tracking approaches and outcomes in a mechanical, almost industrial fashion. His “250 notches” were earned not through passive demand, but through relentless grind, persistence, and rehearsed scripts.

Women who interacted with him in person often described his presence as flat, awkward, or “creepy,” in sharp contrast to his impressive still photos. While his looks promised effortless charisma, his vibe failed to deliver. This disconnect—between his high photo-based scores and his lack of organic, real-world magnetism—solidifies his status as a classic Anti-Fabio Effect recipient.

In later years, Janka faded from relevance in the pickup scene. Speculation persists that natural aging, particularly fat gain, may have eroded his photogenic advantages, and without a stable relationship or marriage, he risked slipping into obscurity as a textbook Anti-Fabio: a man who mogged online but was ultimately defeated by real-life dynamics.

*    **Pseudo-Example of the Anti-Fabio Effect: Bryan Johnson **
Bryan Johnson, the tech multi-millionaire and longevity entrepreneur, stands as a stark and fascinating pseudo-example of the Anti-Fabio Effect. His case demonstrates how a repellent "vibe" or architectural presentation can completely negate a suite of objective, high-value traits that, on paper, align with powerful cultural archetypes.

On a superficial level, Johnson possesses a checklist of attributes that could easily place him as the protagonist in a Gothic romance or cyberpunk thriller:

Extreme Wealth and Resources: A multi-millionaire funding a moonshot project, fitting the "powerful, mysterious billionaire" trope.

Unconventional, Striking Appearance: His meticulously managed pale skin, gaunt facial structure, and intense gaze give him a distinctly vampiric or otherworldly aesthetic.

A Grand, Obsessive Mission: His "Project Blueprint" is a quest for eternal youth, a classic, almost mythological driving force for a character.

In a fictional narrative, these traits would be curated to create an alluring, darkly attractive figure—a tech-vampire overlord or a tragic, immortal genius. This is his objective foundation: the raw materials of a potentially intriguing persona.

However, in reality, Johnson is almost universally clowned upon and perceived as "weird," "creepy," and deeply unnatural by the general public, particularly by women. This is the absolute core of the Anti-Fabio Effect in action. The reasons for this are entirely architectural:

The "Uncanny Valley" of Optimization: Johnson's appearance isn't just pale; it is the result of a sterile, data-driven process aimed at eliminating all human frailty. This crosses into the "uncanny valley," where his near-lack of normal human imperfections (sun exposure, casual aging, spontaneous enjoyment) becomes psychologically unsettling instead of aspirational. It signals a disconnect from humanity, not a superior form of it.

The Context of His Actions: The romantic "vampire" archetype is compelling because it is fictional and metaphorical. Johnson makes it literal and clinical. Practices like receiving blood plasma transfusions from his young son are not seen as darkly romantic; they are perceived as dystopian, ethically dubious, and deeply strange. This transforms his persona from "alluringly mysterious" to "clinically pathological."

The Vibe of Sterility Over Passion: The entire ethos of "Project Blueprint" is one of control, measurement, and optimization. It eliminates spontaneity, passion, and indulgence—key ingredients often associated with raw attraction and charisma. His vibe is not one of dark passion but of cold, algorithmic existence. This is the polar opposite of the "rizz" or authentic social energy that drives real-world attraction.

In essence, Bryan Johnson is the ultimate case study of how context and execution are everything. He has the foundational traits but constructs an architectural nightmare on top of them. His real-world treatment is not just neutral; it is actively negative, which is the hallmark of the Anti-Fabio Effect. He demonstrates that you cannot algorithmically engineer human attraction because the very attempt exposes a fundamental misunderstanding of it, resulting in a vibe that is repellent despite a resume that should, in theory, be compelling.
==Commentary, the objective foundation and the subjective vibe==
The Fabio Effect, at first glance, seems to argue that male attractiveness is entirely subjective and contextual, a mere social construct with no reliable metrics. However, a deeper analysis reveals a more complex interplay between objective biological signals and highly malleable cultural preferences. The overwhelming and meticulously documented fact that men perceived as more [[reproductive success|facially attractive]] tend to have more daughters provides a crucial anchor. This biological correlation, observed in numerous comprehensive data polls, reveals a hard, foundation for "attractiveness." It shows that on a fundamental, often subconscious level, humans can and do identify objective markers of genetic fitness and health. One example is tans, hair and eye color, colored contacts with limbal rings and extremely well oiled skin and hair, are statistically insignificant stimuli in static photos in lab settings but commonly commented on and noticed by people in real life. 

The Fabio Effect does not contradict this biological reality but rather builds upon it. It demonstrates that while the foundation is objective, the architecture built on top of it is entirely subjective and contextual. This architecture is the "vibe"—the dynamic interplay of phenotype, style, context, culture, and personal presence etc. The "Pretty Boy" Niche: The foundation of an attractive Guido Guap Gresham or Mikey Blayze is objective. What makes them Fabio Effect recipients is that their specific architectural style—the "pretty boy," neotenous, mixed-race aesthetic—is not the preferred style of anonymous online raters or modeling agency gatekeepers. However, in the dynamic, real-world contexts of Cincinnati high schools, supermarkets, and malls, etc. that specific architecture resonates powerfully.

Cultural Context: The Wodaabe tribe men are considered the pinnacle of male beauty within their culture. They possess the objective foundation, but their specific architectural style is calibrated to Wodaabe ideals. When placed before  outside raters on a website, that architecture is misread or undervalued, causing their scores to plummet to "average," despite their objective genetic fitness.

Industry vs. Organic Demand: The professional modeling industry (and romance novel cover art) has chosen a very specific architectural style: hyper-masculinity. This style appeals to the male gaze (for selling products) and certain industry gatekeepers. This creates a false dichotomy where men like Blayze, and other pretty boys who possesses the objective foundation and an architecture that generates immense organic, real-world female demand, is deemed "not a model" because his architecture doesn't fit the commercially mandated style.

The Anti-Fabio Effect proves the same rule from the opposite direction. A man like Ike Oduwke may possess the objective foundation (height, musculature, facial structure that scores highly in photos), but the architecture he builds—his social aura, personality, and "vibe"—is so repellent or inert that it completely negates his underlying genetic advantages in real-life interactions.

Therefore, the Fabio Effect is not the argument that attractiveness is fake. It is the argument that true attractiveness is a dialogue, not a monologue. It requires:

An objective foundation of genetic fitness (which correlates with having more daughters).

A subjective architectural style (pretty boy, rugged, exotic, etc.) that successfully connects with a specific audience in a specific context.

Anonymous rating sites can only judge the foundation and maybe a blueprint of the architecture. They cannot capture the living, breathing, dynamic building—the "vibe"—that is constructed in real time through presence, confidence, and cultural resonance etc. 

== See also ==

* [[Pretty Boy|Pretty boy]]
* [[Chad]]
* [[PSL rating]]
* [[Sexual Market Value (SMV)|Sexual Market Value]]
* [[Brad]]

==References==
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