Are you the designated ugly friend? Yep, that’s a thing and we’re scared

We're all for being the designated driver when our mates are on the pints, but the designated ugly friend when our mates are on the pull? Not so much.

Unfortunately for us – and you – many of us are guilty of using our less attractive friends to make ourselves look better in the eyes of strangers.

While it may read like the screenplay of a high school movie, the 'ugly friend' phenomenon is as old as the hills, and according to a recent study published in Psychological Science is as real as the fear you are feeling right now.

In an effort to highlight the 'ugly friend' effect, researchers showed participants images of individuals and asked them to rate them on attractiveness.

Soon after they discovered that when the same images were shown alongside 'less attractive' individuals, the ratings for the original face soared.

Commenting on the findings, Dr. Nicholas Furl said: "We found that the presence of a distractor face makes differences between attractive people more obvious and that observers start to pull apart these differences, making them even more particular in their judgement."

And it seems the vast majority of us are – on some level – aware of this, and tend to opt for a less attractive wing woman or distractor face when on the pull.

Oh, and if you – like us – have found yourself thinking you don't actually have any ugly friends, it might be…well… don't make us say it…