Why attractive people are more successful

Broadly speaking, the beauty bias concerns the favorable treatment that individuals receive when they are deemed more attractive, regardless of whether this happens consciously or unconsciously — and of course few individuals, let alone employers, actually admit to preferring to work with others on the basis of their higher levels of attractiveness.

Naturally, there are some exceptions. This means that any employer interested in eliminating handicaps against less attractive people should be able to detect this bias, and evaluate the efficacy of any intervention. Now the bad news: you are unlikely to achieve this unless you replace human intuition with data — this is where AI can potentially help, if approached responsibly. So how can we tackle the attractiveness bias?

First, you can measure attractiveness, which is typically a function of consensual ratings of physical appearance. Imagine you ask 10 people to rate people on physical appearance or attractiveness.

Although attractiveness is not objective, which is why there are always disagreements between people rating the same person, it is also not entirely subjective, so most people will tend to agree on whether someone is more or less attractive, for instance by using a point scale, and not just when they belong to the same culture.

Next, you can correlate this score with a range of success indicators, from interview ratings, to job performance ratings, to promotion or salary data. A pro-attractiveness bias already exists in education, with studies showing that physically attractive students tend to obtain higher grades at university, partly because they are deemed more conscientious and intelligent, even when they are not.

Furthermore, attractiveness already helps students get into universities in the first place, by eliciting more favorable evaluations during college admissions interviews. In fact, meta-analytic studies suggest that even children are assumed to be smarter, more honest, and driven, when they are deemed more attractive — and children make the same type of inferences when they evaluate more or less attractive adults.

Unsurprisingly, the beauty bias transfers into the workplace, with scientific studies showing that less attractive individuals are more likely to get fired , even though they are also less likely to be hired in the first place. For example, in an experimental study , researchers sent 11, CVs to various job openings, including identical CVs accompanied by candidate photographs of different levels of attractiveness.

This has a major impact over the course of a career. Better-looking candidates fared better in the midterm elections, a study published in American Politics Research finds. Attractive incumbent candidates vying in male-only districts fared especially better.

Other research from Finland found both male and female political candidates who look better than their competitors are more successful , as voters enjoy watching good looking candidates.

When comparing women who wore makeup versus what they look like bare-faced, participants in a Harvard study viewed the groomed woman as more attractive, competent, likeable, and trustworthy. A study sent out 10, resumes changing only the name, address, and photo to analyze the call-back rates. Men are more likely to tolerate unfairness — such as a hefty salary negotiation — when dealing with attractive women, one study finds.

Results indicated men were more likely to engage in unfair negotiations with attractive women. Joseph T. They found stock prices rose higher for businesses with attractive CEOs after positive news about the company aired on TV. The researchers asked volunteers to rate how attractive the student was on a point scale.

After rating each student, researchers found women perceived to be better looking had higher grades on average. Hamermesh, however, believes that it's not just the sex appeal that makes attractive people more successful.

He writes that attractive people tend to have desirable personality traits, like higher self-confidence—likely a direct result of their good looks—that appeal to employers. They limited their study to how facial appearance affects excellence in a job interview. Don't be a movie actor. Most important, go into fields that you enjoy, and that you have an advantage in doing.

Accentuate your strengths, and try to avoid those things where you are relatively disadvantaged. For you. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. Get the Insider App.