What is the appropriate level of a compliment? You would think that the more generic the better since that includes a larger number, but clearly "You are most beautiful woman", beats "You are the most beautiful mammal". What's going on?
Becoming more specific is not better either. "You are the most beautiful woman in your forties" does not sound good either, especially as a personal comment. It might work as a more impersonal compliment in a listing of "sexy women over 40", but clearly not as a personal compliment. Getting more specific clearly makes it worse. "You are the most beautiful women over 40 with red hair", is also worse.
Let's put this this on a scale.
Combining the compliment, specific and generic doesn't help either. It also makes it worse. "You are the most beautiful red haired mammal in your forties" doesn't come out right.
Other categories
There are clearly differences in what category we vary too. Varying time and geographical area is does not follow a normal curve at all.
Geographical Area
"You are the most beautiful woman in the world", is better than "You are the most beautiful woman in Sweden with is clearly better than "You are the most beautiful woman in this household". This seems to follow a more proportional distribution where larger is better.
Temporal
"You are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen", is better than "You are the most beautiful woman I've seen this week. At first, it have the same proportionality as area, but when we come to the far end of time, now, we see a little twist in appreciation. It is definitely better to be "most beautiful right now" than "this week".
The only conclusion to draw from this is that compliments are not easy. :)
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