lueymogs
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If humans weren’t biased to judge others by their appearance, we wouldn’t have to remind children not to judge a book by its cover. In fact, babies even as young as 2 months old, look longer unattractive faces. And by a year, they laugh more, play more and feel more comfortable around attractive people. The NIH dubs this the Halo effect, or the idea that if something looks good, it is good, regardless of whether that’s a conscious judgment or not.
Attractive people empirically are seen as smarter, happier, more trustworthy and more responsible. They even get lighter sentences in court. And socially, this means they have more friends, more romantic partners and generally more societal integration, all creating a self fulfilling prophecy.
And in school, the cycle repeats. Teachers expect pretty kids to perform better. And when a teacher has an innate bias towards you, you do perform better. The only caveat is there’s no actual link between attractiveness and intelligence, none. But the beauty bias doesn’t end there.
In the workplace, unsurprisingly, unattractive people are less likely to be hired and more likely to be fired. In one study, researchers sent 11,000 job applications and changed out the photos. Guess who got more callbacks? The attractive people, every single time. On average, attractive people make 10 to 15% more than their unattractive peers. Even among Fortune 500 executives, attractiveness ratings predicted company profits.
Clearly, there’s an unfair advantage to being attractive and an unfair handicap to being deemed Unattractive. If you’re mid looks wise, this problem may not affect you. But if you’re on either end of the spectrum, looks can make or break your life.
And the problem is only worsening. We used to see a handful of beautiful people in movies or magazines, but now we see hundreds every day and our brains begin to register that as normal. Combining this rise in superficiality with a general lack of valuing other people as a result of again, social media or hookup culture more generally, this trend spells disaster. And most people refuse to recognize this harrowing reality.
Recognizing this issue is the first step to solving it and not all hope is lost. While in the short term we can improve our looks to improve day to day life and treatment, we must also combat this issue systemically, both being empathetic to those around us, calling out lookism when we see it and regulating against it. So put in the effort and remember it’s never over.
Attractive people empirically are seen as smarter, happier, more trustworthy and more responsible. They even get lighter sentences in court. And socially, this means they have more friends, more romantic partners and generally more societal integration, all creating a self fulfilling prophecy.
And in school, the cycle repeats. Teachers expect pretty kids to perform better. And when a teacher has an innate bias towards you, you do perform better. The only caveat is there’s no actual link between attractiveness and intelligence, none. But the beauty bias doesn’t end there.
In the workplace, unsurprisingly, unattractive people are less likely to be hired and more likely to be fired. In one study, researchers sent 11,000 job applications and changed out the photos. Guess who got more callbacks? The attractive people, every single time. On average, attractive people make 10 to 15% more than their unattractive peers. Even among Fortune 500 executives, attractiveness ratings predicted company profits.
Clearly, there’s an unfair advantage to being attractive and an unfair handicap to being deemed Unattractive. If you’re mid looks wise, this problem may not affect you. But if you’re on either end of the spectrum, looks can make or break your life.
And the problem is only worsening. We used to see a handful of beautiful people in movies or magazines, but now we see hundreds every day and our brains begin to register that as normal. Combining this rise in superficiality with a general lack of valuing other people as a result of again, social media or hookup culture more generally, this trend spells disaster. And most people refuse to recognize this harrowing reality.
Recognizing this issue is the first step to solving it and not all hope is lost. While in the short term we can improve our looks to improve day to day life and treatment, we must also combat this issue systemically, both being empathetic to those around us, calling out lookism when we see it and regulating against it. So put in the effort and remember it’s never over.
