This behavior is similar from the time I played a very popular mmorpg - when people selected others for their groups, their criteria deferred to the candidate's analyzed gameplay records (their 'logs') on a website which boiled down to a number showing their damage dealt and the color of it's text.

There was nothing about going into the logs to see if they could do the game's mechanical challenges, minimizing their damage taken. It made for a worse environment yet the players couldn't stop themselves from using such criteria.

In short, humans are lazy and default to numbers and colors when given the chance. When others question them on it, they can have a default easy answer of being part of the herd of zebras to get out of trouble.