Photo by Pepi Stojanovski on Unsplash
LONDON — Good news if you’ve been told you’re either “very attractive” or “very ugly” — there’s a decent chance you earn more money than those around you, according to a study.
Researchers at the London School of Economics and the University of Massachusetts have been able to somewhat dispel a pervasive theory regarding attractiveness, commonly referred to as a “beauty premium” or the “ugliness penalty.” Previous studies have found that those who are good-looking command higher wages in their employment. This phenomenon has been seen in a wide range of professions, from business to law.
It turns out that people aren’t necessarily discriminated against because of their appearance, the researchers determined.
For their analysis, Satoshi Kanazawa and Mary Still, the study’s co-authors, examined a dataset pulled from a popular survey looking at adolescents, the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, also known as “Add Health.” The survey is notable in that it measures physical attractiveness for a given individual in four installments over a period of 13 years, doing so on a five-point scale.
In their analysis, Kanazawa and Still write that while more attractive individuals often out-earned their less attractive peers, this was often due to the presence of other qualities. Those qualities being smarter, healthier, calmer, more extroverted, and more conscientious.
“Physically more attractive workers may earn more, not necessarily because they are more beautiful, but because they are healthier, more intelligent, and have better personality traits conducive to higher earnings,” says Kanazawa in a statement.
Attractiveness can be beneficial either way, for some
Interestingly, those who were categorized by Add Health as being “very unattractive” were also higher earners. They always outearned those who were deemed “merely unattractive,” and in some cases made more money than individuals of average and above-average attractiveness.
The finding that those on the far end of either side of the beauty spectrum make a better living was likely skipped over in previous studies because individuals less attractive than average were all lumped into one category.
In addition, few studies have examined all of the combined factors that Kanazawa and Still took into account.
The study is published in the Journal of Business and Psychology.
ROFL
I’d imagine that the truth is that ugly people are more successful. The world is the beautiful womans’ oyster, and it tends to make them weak. Ugly people tend to be strong because the world isn’t going to hand them much; they have to work for what they have.
I used to be a little handsome. Not so much anymore. Should we have a study for people like me?
BS! This is a study to make ppl feel better about themselves just like praising overweight models! It’s all marketing to a more obese & zit faced computer geek population! Historically studies have shown attractive ppl climb the ladder further. Just like Men w/hair r also more successful in the corp world (that may be changing based on new studies showing shaved headed mean are more authoritative…thanks to Vin Diesel & The Rock), but just google or YouTube studies & videos! Fact check. Attractive ppl get noticed more, theyre helped more, they have more conversations w/complete strangers! Elevator rides r VERY diff. Ugly ppl get NO eye contact whereas attractive ppl get conversation!!
Nope. Everybody knows nerdy ugly people are the smart ones. They’re nice to look at but you don’t want them doing things that require a lot of intelligence. Generally. There are occasional exceptions.
Usually a person gets brains or beauty but it rare to get both.
Ugly are just as successful they just have to work harder.
Beauty is skin deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone!
This opens up a whole new medical subspecialty…I can see the billboards now:
“Drs. Tarnow and Jones, accredited plastic surgeons, can make you REALLY ugly!
How ugly? As ugly as buzzards on a gut truck!”
So, I might still be successful…??? !!!
So I wasted $$$ on my childrens’ braces? I don’t think so. Drivel from the ivory towers continues. Shocking!
Thank God, there is hope for me.
I get it. Stupid people are also ugly, but heinously ugly people are smart and rich. In other words, to the farm for average people. Smart and good looking as well as morbidly ugly rise to the top.
Whatever happened to beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Who made the decision as to who was ugly and who was very attractive?
That was rephrased as beauty in the eye of the beerholder.
I’d say very few beholders would judge Rosie O’Donnell as more physically attractive than Jennifer Aniston.
I’d rather look marvelous than feel marvelous.
That explains Robert Reich.
They don’t get as much pssy though.
They do, its just ugly pssy.
All women look the same in the dark.
But a femme-beard is itchy regardless of the light level.
YUCK!
If it’s late enough and the bar is getting ready to close.
The one place looks mean nothing is in pro sports. The handsome Michael Jordan and the Ugly Dennis Rodman were paid to play basketball, not be models.
Ugly may make as much as beautiful but they dont get laid as often.
The projects full of children in the USA would prove you right about that. The ugly not only get it often but breed indiscriminately.
Uhhh … Projects? You living in the 70’s?
You think the term projects is not currently in use? What planet are you from? Antoine Dodson bed intruder auto tune the news song from 4-5 years ago? A young black woman singing I got raped by some idiot in the projects.
I stand corrected, I do remember Antoine and his animated descriptions at the scene of the crime.
One of my favorite actors was the incredibly ugly Jack Elam. Also Marty Feldman.
I’ve worked in a lot of places. Women in management are almost always tall. Men higher up in management tend to be 6’4″ or taller, athletic, and have thick hair regardless of their age.
I guess we can thank the SJWs for this travesty…..if it’s true.