Relevant excerpts:
To conduct the study, researchers analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which involved over 20,000 adolescents in the United States. They looked at information from three different waves of data collection, spanning from the mid-1990s to the late 2010s.
The researchers found that individuals who were rated as attractive or very attractive during their adolescent years were more likely to experience upward social mobility in terms of education, occupation, and income when they became adults. This effect was significant even after accounting for various factors such as socioeconomic background, cognitive abilities, personality traits, health, and neighborhood characteristics.
The study also uncovered gender differences in the impact of physical attractiveness on social mobility. While physical attractiveness mattered for both males and females, it appeared to have a stronger influence on males’ educational and income mobility compared to females. For females, the effect of physical attractiveness on occupational mobility was less pronounced.
To conduct the study, researchers analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which involved over 20,000 adolescents in the United States. They looked at information from three different waves of data collection, spanning from the mid-1990s to the late 2010s.
The researchers found that individuals who were rated as attractive or very attractive during their adolescent years were more likely to experience upward social mobility in terms of education, occupation, and income when they became adults. This effect was significant even after accounting for various factors such as socioeconomic background, cognitive abilities, personality traits, health, and neighborhood characteristics.
The study also uncovered gender differences in the impact of physical attractiveness on social mobility. While physical attractiveness mattered for both males and females, it appeared to have a stronger influence on males’ educational and income mobility compared to females. For females, the effect of physical attractiveness on occupational mobility was less pronounced.

Attractiveness has a bigger impact on men's socioeconomic success than women's, study suggests
A study in Social Science Quarterly found that attractiveness in adolescence boosts social mobility, particularly for men, impacting their education, occupation, and income more than for women. This overlooked factor shows significant influence on future success.
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