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Does it Pay to be Attractive? • Street Tested

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The topic of beauty and its influence on others has been debated among cultures throughout human history. Beauty has been widely regarded as a mysterious and seductive force on the psyche that reveals its power through stories of politics, marriage, power, and social status.

The old adage "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" simply means that what we consider beautiful is based on the stories we tell ourselves-a subjective experience colored by the unconscious and by the culture at large.

You've probably heard these stories before, of handsome men getting away with more than they should, or attractive young women getting out of speeding tickets because of their looks. Physical attractiveness does create a powerful first impression on the mind, so powerful in fact that we may go much beyond looks and simply start generating assumptions about a person's success, status, parenting, and intelligence, even if they prove not to be true.

To understand our susceptibility to beauty, then, we need to acknowledge the power of first impressions. First impressions linger in the mind and influence the way we see and treat others. Once an impression is rooted, it takes a lot to change our attitude about a person. If you go to a party and the host is generous and kind, you're more likely to forgive him when he does a keg stand or spills cranberry juice on your white shirt.

This comes from our adaptive and evolutionary behavior. As David McRaney says in You Are Not So Smart:

"To speed up processing, your brain tends first to apply very simple labels to the things you encounter minute by minute. You can thank your ancestors for paying attention to these labels for millions of years, because some of the things you are most likely to encounter in life are now hardwired into your mind as being good or bad, desirable or undesirable.

"When you make decisions and kindle beliefs based on innate sensations, psychologists say you are using the affect heuristic. An affect, in psychological terms, is a feeling that needs no further analysis. It isn't a coherent thought with words and symbols attached, but rather, a raw emotional state, a twinge or a jolt, or just a general sensation that sets a tone or a mood."

This heuristic influences what psychologists call the halo effect. The halo effect causes one trait (e.g., beauty) to drastically color your perception of all other traits. If you think someone is beautiful, you are also likely to assume they're smart, ambitious, interesting, etc. We've all made these assumptions before, for good or ill. McRaney continues:

"In the last one hundred years of research, beauty seems to be the one thing that most reliably produces the halo effect. Beauty is shorthand, a placeholder term for an invisible mental process in which you are privy only to the final output.

"Like the words delicious and disgusting, it describes a distinct variation of the affect heuristic. To see and judge a face as beautiful is to experience a tempest of brain activity informed by your culture, your experiences, and the influences of your deep evolutionary inheritance."

Let's take a look at some of these studies.
Why Beauty Is The Most Powerful First Impression
In 1972, psychologists Karen Dion, Ellen Berscheid, and Elaine Walster conducted a study to see just how beauty elicits the halo effect. The subjects, however, were told that the study was focused on first impressions. Each person received three envelopes containing three photographs that the researchers had rated on a scale of attractiveness-highly attractive, average, and not so attractive.

The subjects had to look at the photographs and then judge 27 different personality traits. They had to determine which person in the set of photos possessed traits like altruism, stability, etc. Then they had to judge whether these people were happy, along with their marital, parenting, and career status.

The results? With nothing but a picture to base their judgments, participants judged that highly attractive people possessed most of the positive traits, and possessed them more strongly, than others. They were also seen as happier and more successful, as better parents and as holding better jobs.

Wow.

All of these assumptions were determined from one picture. But it makes sense, because humans are always predicting, always going beyond what's at face value. This is like seeing someone wearing black-framed glasses and thinking they're sophisticated, smart, or nerdy when all they're doing is wearing glasses. If they happen to be smart or nerdy, this impacts our memory and in turn how we begin to label others wearing similar glasses.

In another study from 1974, researchers gave essays to participants with a photo attached to it. Some received an essay with a photo of an attractive woman, others an essay with a photo of an unattractive woman. The participants were asked to rate the quality of the writing; researchers didn't mention the photo in their questions.

The result? When people assumed the essays were written by an attractive woman, they judged them as better written, more in-depth, and more creative. The catch? The essays were identical.

As McRaney concludes:

"When the scientists ran [this same] study with essays purposely written to be awful, the disparity between the ratings was magnified. As Landy and Sigall wrote, you expect better performances from attractive people, but when they fail, you are also more likely to forgive them.

"In short, as Landy and Sigall pointed out, you expect more from pretty people well before you know anything else about them, and when they fall short of your expectations, you give them more of a chance to prove themselves than you do people less symmetrical or slender or muscle-bound or bosom-heaving or whatever cultural or era-appropriate norms of attractiveness are woven into your perception."

The halo effect isn't limited to physical attractiveness. That 5-star-reviewed vacuum cleaner, the book with "New York Times Bestseller" stamped on the cover, or "Oprah's Book Club"-all of these labels have profound influences on whether we give a product our own thumbs-up or thumbs-down-and whether we pull out a credit card for it or not. It's a mental shortcut to allow us to make quick decisions instead of sitting there weighing all the different variables.
We Are Our Own Worst Critic
Although beauty is in the eye of the beholder, much of our self-esteem and what we believe to be beautiful is diluted by the media. Without self-awareness, we can be pulled left and right in search of what's beautiful and acceptable.

The ideal thin woman or a guy with a chiseled jawline with abs is ruthlessly, and inaccurately, portrayed on TV and in magazines. People are becoming more aware of the effects of Photoshop and other tools, but it proves difficult to set aside artificial standards of beauty and be more compassionate toward ourselves and others.

Dove did a wonderful campaign and study on this effect, showcasing how we're our own worst critics, and how when others describe us, they celebrate and appreciate us, whereas we criticize and condemn.

The danger in all of this is ignorance of the halo effect, being blinded by the luster of a good hair day or a popular cultural label. To overcome it, a scientific and psychological understanding of beauty and its effects are helpful. It's difficult to resist putting things on a pedestal, to not view items or people in a hierarchy. But with careful consideration of what we're viewing and telling ourselves, perhaps we can achieve a level of objectivity that allows us not to be blinded by the halo above one's head, so we may ultimately learn to appreciate beauty in all of its forms.
Paul Jun is the author of Connecting the Dots: Strategies and Mediation on Self-Education.

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The Surprising Power of A Beautiful Face

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The topic of beauty and its influence on others has been debated among cultures throughout human history. Beauty has been widely regarded as a mysterious and seductive force on the psyche that reveals its power through stories of politics, marriage, power, and social status.

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Self-Assessment Quiz: True or False

1. What I wore in college is okay to wear in my new role because I work in Silicon Valley and we have a relaxed dress code. TRUE / FALSE

2. I look this way because I can't afford to buy nicer clothes. TRUE / FALSE

3. I usually just roll out of bed and grab the first thing in my closet. TRUE / FALSE

4. I prefer the less-is-more look when it comes to hair and makeup, so I don't wear any makeup. TRUE / FALSE

I know I'm going to get some hate mail for this post, but it's my blog and my opinion, so let's get this cold, hard truth out of the way right off the bat. " Attractive people earn an average of 3 percent to 4 percent more than people with below-average looks," according to Daniel Hamermesh in his book Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful (Princeton University Press, 2013).

So what are you saying, Cheryl? Only pretty people get hired? Read that quote again, please. It didn't once mention the word "pretty." It said "attractive." And in my opinion, anyone and everyone can be attractive, if they take the time and pay attention to how they dress, act, and carry themselves.

Why is this important? Did you read the quote? You can earn an average of 3 to 4 percent more if you just spend some time caring about how you present yourself to the world. To me, that's the definition of attractive. And if how much you earn at the start of your career plays a critical role in how much you earn going forward, doesn't it only make sense to get as much as you're worth right from the start? If your looks can help with that, why not maximize them to your benefit?!

I know the world has changed! Gone are the days when you were expected to show up wearing the same dark blue or black business suit for each and every job interview you went on. However, it does not hurt one iota to dress up for an interview. Even if you're applying for a tech position at the latest internet or social media company du jour in Silicon Valley, or a hip retail establishment, it won't hurt you to show up for that first conversation looking like you care about personal hygiene and cleanliness, or that you know how to use a comb. No matter how smart you are. I stand firm on my assertion that you work better when you feel better about yourself. That includes your appearance. So if you answered TRUE to the quiz questions above, I encourage you to rethink your strategy for long-term success. Dress for success still means something. I don't care if the rest of the work crew is wearing flip flops. Standing out can pay off in the long run.

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YES, ATTRACTIVE PEOPLE CAN EARN MORE - Powerful Penny

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Self-Assessment Quiz: True or False What I wore in college is okay to wear in my new role because I work in Silicon Valley and we have a relaxed dress code. TRUE / FALSE I look this way because I can't afford to buy nicer clothes.

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The truth about why beautiful people are more successful

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The truth about why beautiful people are more successful

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Have you ever sat next to a supermodel on a plane? If you always fly in Economy class, the answer is probably no. Some supermodels, of course, fly only on private jets, so you'll never see them on commercial airline flights. But the few times I recognized an attractive supermodel or actress on a plane, she invariably sat in First or Business (F/B) class (the same may be true for attractive male models or actors, but I pay less attention to them). Famous people, of course, live in a special world of their own and they may have all kinds of special reasons for traveling in F/B class. But where you sit on a plane is not just about how famous you are.

I fly frequently and at some point I began to notice that the passengers who sit in F/B class seem better-looking than those sitting in Economy (E). This applies to individuals of both genders and of any age, including children and people in their 70s. A few times, as I boarded a plane and walked to reach my seat in the last row I mentally assigned an attractiveness score, from 1 to 10, to the people sitting in F/B class and calculated an average. Then I did the same for some random people sitting in the middle of the E class. Every time I did this, the average score for the people in the F/B class turned out to be higher than the average score for the people in the E class, which means that I rated the F/B people as being more attractive. My observations and mental calculations, of course, cannot be considered scientific data by any stretch of imagination. I encourage all of you-the readers of this blog-to do the same observations next time you fly and send me your average attractiveness scores for the F/B and the E passengers. When I have enough reports, I will run a statistical analysis and we will all publish our results in Science magazine (or more likely, I will write another blog about it).

Assuming that I am correct, I can think of at least three different explanations for the differences in attractiveness between the F/B and the E class passengers. First, it's possible that more attractive people are generally wealthier than less attractive people, and therefore more likely to purchase expensive F/B class tickets when they fly. Second, it's possible that more attractive people are more likely to work for companies that purchase F/B class tickets for their employees when they travel for work (for example, business executives who work for large corporations). Third, it's possible that more attractive people think they are special and are willing to pay a lot more money for a F/B class ticket regardless of their personal wealth or what companies they work for. Somehow, I don't think that this third explanation is the correct one. Very attractive people can be a little narcissistic and think that they deserve a special treatment, but the size of people's egos alone is unlikely to justify spending a few extra thousand dollars for a F/B class ticket, unless these people are wealthy enough to be able to afford it.

So we are left with the first two explanations, which imply that more attractive people are, on average, wealthier and have higher-paying jobs (if your company buys you a F/B class ticket when you travel for work, chances are you have a high-paying job) than less attractive people. This happens to be a well-known fact that has been reported by dozens of studies done by economists and psychologists. Many of these studies are summarized and discussed in the 2011 book Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful, written by Daniel Hamermesh, an economist at the University of Texas in Austin.

The research reviewed by Hamermesh shows that attractive people, both men and women, earn an average of 3 or 4% more than people with below average looks, which adds up to a significant amount of money over a lifetime. Beautiful people are also hired sooner, get promotions more quickly, are higher-ranking in their companies (a study found the CEOs of larger and more successful companies are rated as being more physically attractive than the CEOs of smaller companies), and get all kinds of extra benefits and perks on the job including, perhaps, more free tickets to fly in F/B class. It turns out that more attractive people often bring more money to their companies and therefore are more valuable employees. For example, a good-looking insurance salesperson will sell more insurance than one with below average looks. But that's not the whole story. Even in situations in which more and less attractive employees don't differ in their earning potential, employers are biased in favor of the better-looking people. For example, a study showed that above average looking people who apply for loans are more likely to obtain loans and to pay lower interest rates than below-average looking borrowers. This occurs despite the fact that the two groups of borrowers don't differ in their demographic characteristics (age or gender) or credit history. In fact, it turned out that the attractive borrowers were more likely to be delinquent on their loans than the less attractive people. Hamermesh's conclusion is that lenders are willing to exchange more generous terms on loans "for the pleasure of dealing with good-looking borrowers." They do this, according to him, simply because they are prejudiced against bad-looking borrowers. Similarly, Hamermesh thinks that good-looking insurance salespeople sell more insurance because customers are biased against bad-looking insurance sellers.

This explanation is pretty much the only thing that caught my attention in Hamermesh's book, which is otherwise a good example of how to write a boring book on a great topic. Having a prejudice against bad-looking people is not a good explanation for having a bias in favor of good-looking people. In fact, it's not an explanation at all. It's the same as saying that half a glass is full because the other half is empty. I'd like to offer an alternative explanation for "the pleasure of dealing with good-looking people." It's called sex. Good-looking people are more appealing as potential sex partners, and other people choose to interact with them (to spend time near them, talk with them, buy insurance from them, and hire them as employees) so as to increase the chances to have sex with them.

The male mind is designed in such a way when it comes to sex that heterosexual men will do anything to increase their chances to have sex with an attractive woman, no matter how small these chances are, and even if what they do only increases the probability of sex from 0.01 to 0.015 %. What a man can do ranges from a simple smile to an act of courtesy, to sending an email or making a phone call, to having a brief conversation with a woman on a train or a plane. These actions may also include purchasing insurance from an attractive insurance saleswoman; they definitely also include hiring an attractive woman to make her a permanent feature of the working environment. Not all of these actions occur consciously. Some are expressed unconsciously in the form of subtle biases in preferences, decision-making, or other behaviors. The advertisement industry knows this very well. Virtually all the ads in Italian sports newspapers, which are mainly read by men, feature half-naked attractive models, regardless of the nature of the product being advertised. The female mind may not be as extreme as the male mind in pursuing ALL opportunities for sex with attractive partners, but women too are active players in this arena. Heterosexual women too like to look at ads featuring half-naked male models and they flirt (consciously or unconsciously) with attractive men whenever they get the chance.

I have an attractive friend who flies frequently for work and whose employer buys First Class tickets for her. She tells me that 99% of the men who occupy the seat next to her start talking to her at some point during the flight, and half of them end up asking for her phone number. Sometimes, she closes her eyes and pretends to be asleep to avoid being bothered. No one bothers me when I sit in the last row of the Economy class. Sometimes, I am lucky enough that no one is sitting next to me on either side, so I can stretch my body across three seats, close my eyes, and sleep for real.

If you like this blog, you might like to pre-order my book Games People Play (out on April 10)

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The truth about why beautiful people are more successful

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Have you ever sat next to a supermodel on a plane? If you always fly in Economy class, the answer is probably no. Some supermodels, of course, fly only on private jets, so you'll never see them on commercial airline flights.

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Attractive people giving ordinary people advice 

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Attractive people giving ordinary people advice 