Abstract: Techniques are disclosed for performing a search based on a search query comprising at least one or more subjective elements and one or more objective elements. A first search for content may be performed based on the one or more objective elements of the search query. A distribution of a numerical characteristic of results returned from the first search may be determined, where the numerical characteristic corresponds to one of the subjective elements of the search query. One or more proportional threshold for the subjective element may be determined, and a range of the numerical characteristic may be selected by applying the one or more proportional thresholds to the distribution. A second search for content may be performed based on the selected range of the numerical characteristic.