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[godhandiscen]

11 scientific reasons why attractive people are more successful in life

Attractive people get paid more, get considered for more jobs, and have stronger social skills than unattractive people, according to science.

www.businessinsider.com

Studies show that you're more likely to get hired if you look well-groomed, that good-looking people make about 12% more money than less appealing folks, and that attractive real-estate brokers bring in more money than their less attractive peers. Indeed, according to a just-published paper on the 2018 congressional midterms, more attractive candidates are more likely to get elected.

I really hope that in the future the conversation around privilege and discrimination finally centers on what I consider to be true elephant in the room. Beatiful people have a massive advantage in life over the rest, and yet they are often chosen as token victims or thought leaders, around social issues, racial/cultural discrimination, economic disparities, etc. As a society we simply don’t favor ugly people, their voices get lost in the vacuum. For all our progress around racial discrimination in the past century, the discrimination against ugly people has remained a constant, from the advent of the film industry up until today. In fact, social media, due to its visual nature, has only perpetrated the disparities of opportunity based around physical beauty.

In short, as a society, we are just a bunch of hypocrites.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Counterpoint: Attractive people tend to be more intelligent, socially adjusted and emotionally stable.

 

[nush]

 

[haxan7]

Is this the chin guy

 

[godhandiscen]

Counterpoint: Attractive people tend to be more intelligent, socially adjusted and emotionally stable.

I could see how this happens, attractive people just find intelligent people to mate with. However, I would say that in an IQ test, they are also measuring your confidence, and a stigma of being ugly can impair your IQ results; people with lack of confidence will never believe in themselves. I think that the normalization around salaries is the most glaring data point. Beautiful people just get paid more for the same position.

 

[BeforeU]

1. Physically attractive workers are considered more able by employers. (True)
2. Physically attractive workers are more confident, and higher confidence increases wages. (True)
3. Physically attractive workers have social skills that raise their wages when they interact with employers. (True)
4. Attractive people are more likely to get elected to public office. (Some what true?)
5. Women who wear makeup appear more competent and trustworthy. (lol wtf?)
6. Attractive people get called back for job interviews more often. (True)
7. Attractive women have a better advantage when negotiating with men. (True)
8. Good-looking CEOs bring better stock returns for their companies. (factually bullshit, how many fortune 500 companies have attractive CEO? lmao)
9. Attractive teachers can better teach students, both in grade schools and in college. (fuck no)
10. Attractive women get better grades. (NO)
11. Attractive people are more sought after as romantic partners. (True)

 

[nush]

This topic...

 

[godhandiscen]

This topic...

No, i am actually very happy with what I got in the genetic lottery and it is probably a big contributing factoring to my success in life. However, I have had experiences in my career during the past decade which lead me to believe in the validity of the article I posted.

For example, I lead a team of engineers that build marketing technologies and as part of my job I do presentations for sales people. Junior sales people go through a trial of 90 days to prove themselves (sign their first deal) before they get kicked out. Whenever I do a presentation and see junior sales people, I can guess with great success who will be around after 90 days, just by looks. Like this anecdotal evidence, I have plenty others. For example, the diversity and inclusion committe at my company is just full of beautiful extroverted and confident people that only organize social events geared towards similarly beautiful extroverted and confident people, imagine a beach day or renting a private club with a pool (It is cringey like a high school). To me it is pretty obvious that the further up I go in the career ladder, the better looking people I find myself surrounded by. Obviously these people worked hard and their looks couldn’t be the key factor in their success, but it does seem that good looks accompany success.

 

[MaestroMike]

 

[nush]

Obviously these people worked hard and their looks couldn’t be the key factor in their success, but it does seem that good looks accompany success.

Investing in yourself pays off. I've seen plenty of ugly duckings turn into swans. This could be a correlation/causation effect.

 

[Durask]

In short, as a society, we are just a bunch of hypocrites.

Yes, of course.

Always and forever.

 

[Durask]

Counterpoint: Attractive people tend to be more intelligent, socially adjusted and emotionally stable.

You could argue that when you are treated better since early childhood it definitely helps you grow up more socially adjusted and emotionally stable.

 

[godhandiscen]

Investing in yourself pays off. I've seen plenty of ugly duckings turn into swans. This could be a correlation/causation effect.

Even if these looks were the result of a time/money investment, gym hours, dieting, cosmetic surgery, luxury clothes, the argument doesn’t change. We favor beauty and beauty wether natural or obtained has a great correlation with success.

 

[German Hops]

damn, that dude is pretty hot.

 

[Keihart]

Wouldn't call it discrimination but it's certainly a bias, on the other hand, we can find all kind of bias until the end of the world.

 

[mansoor1980]

 

[godhandiscen]

Wouldn't call it discrimination but it's certainly a bias, on the other hand, we can find all kind of bias until the end of the world.

That’s arguing semantics. Discrimination has a negative tone, but in fact discriminations are perceptual while biases are influential.

 

[nush]

Even if these looks were the result of a time/money investment, gym hours, dieting, cosmetic surgery, luxury clothes, the argument doesn’t change. We favor beauty and beauty wether natural or obtained has a great correlation with success.

Be attractive, don't be unattractive and use the skills and knowledge openly available to you.

 

[Coolwhhip]

Don’t worry, in not too long you can all be like us when we can alter dna.

 

[Keihart]

That’s arguing semantics. Discrimination has a negative tone, but in fact discriminations are perceptual while biases are influential.

Kind of my point, it's a bias, negative or not is not clear as day.
You mention that you have experience in a field where the bias is clear as day, but you also mention the social nature of the job, thus, i would say that being attractive is an important asset in a social job just like charisma.

There are lot of fields way less social that are full of accomplished ugly ducks, so it isn't really clear that the bias is inherently a negative.

 

[godhandiscen]

You mention that you have experience in a field where the bias is clear as day, but you also mention the social nature of the job, thus, i would say that being attractive is an important asset in a social job just like charisma.

Why should being attractive be important to close a sales deal? I don’t deny it is. However I don’t believe it offers any objective deal making advantage other than the fact we favor talking to beautiful people, and beauty is subjective.

Be attractive, don't be unattractive and use the skills and knowledge openly available to you.

Think about it in a more abstract way though. Why do you prefer seeing the guy in the right? Is it because there is a quantifiable objective advantage to having a goatee and hiding the lack of chin or years of programming and behavior design by the media shaping a subconscious bias against the looks on the left?

I am as shallow as anybody else in this board, but often I feel that my preference for specific types of looks is just the result of behavioral design. I am just another NPC with a bias for good looking people.

 

[nush]

However I don’t believe it offers any objective deal making advantage other than the fact we favor talking to beautiful people.

"If I buy her shit, maybe I'll get the chance to fuck her". Hey, guess what? Most deals in business are not made on objective cost/benefit choices of raw numbers. Personality, relationships, chance and misdirection all play a part. It's all subjective.

 

[IDKFA]

In short, as a society, we are just a bunch of hypocrites.

Calm yourself OP.

The article is mostly bull shit.

Anybody can be attractive and have the attributes (such as confidence) to succeed. Attractive is also subjective (after all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder)

Attractive people are not just people who look like Greek Gods, but people who are well groomed. People who look after their appearance and care about personal hygiene. One might also argue people who are intelligent are also attractive. There was a study years ago that showed women found men who read very attractive. Add that to the list as well.

Look after your mind and body, get to the gym and put on some nice clothes and you'll be sorted.

 

[godhandiscen]

"If I buy her shit, maybe I'll get the chance to fuck her". Hey, guess what? Most deals in business are not made on objective cost/benefit choices of raw numbers. Personality, relationships, chance and misdirection all play a part. It's all subjective.

We agree. What I am trying to point out is that this reasoning extends to many other facets of life, and we choose to ignore it because as a society we don’t give a fuck. Like I said earlier, it is a hypocritical behavior.

 

[Keihart]

Why should being attractive be important to close a sales deal? I don’t deny it is. However I don’t believe it offers any objective deal making advantage other than the fact we favor talking to beautiful people.



Think about it in a more abstract way though. Why do you prefer seeing the guy in the right? Is it because there is a quantifiable objective advantage to having a goatee and hiding the lack of chin or years of programming and behavior design by the media shaping a subconscious bias against the looks on the left?

I am as shallow as anybody else in this board, but often I feel that my preference for specific types of looks is just the result of behavioral design. I am just another NPC that prefers good looking people.

I'm pretty sure it's natural to like "pretty" people regardless of what is the trend at the moment, just as it's natural to like pretty pictures and landscapes and whatnot.
It's like asking people to stop liking anything, aesthetics are something that we like as part of human nature in every facet of life despite what that aesthetic is at a given moment, so of course it's an asset when interacting with other humans and jobs that require it.

It is an advantage, but so are a lot of other things that you have limited control over.

 

[Coolwhhip]

I have signed up for a charity once in my life, because the girl was crazy hot. It does work. ‍

 

[godhandiscen]

I'm pretty sure it's natural to like "pretty" people regardless of what is the trend at the moment, just as it's natural to like pretty pictures and landscapes and whatnot.
It's like asking people to stop liking anything, aesthetics are something that we like as part of human nature in every facet of life despite what that aesthetic is at a given moment, so of course it's an asset when interacting with other humans and jobs that require it.

It is an advantage, but so are a lot of other things that you have limited control over.

When beauty is subjective, and the standards are always defined by popular media, I do not believe there is anything natural about the preferences and advantages handed to someone whose looks are in fashion. I perceive this social phenomena as a combination of behavior programming and survival of the fittest.

 

[Keihart]

When beauty is subjective, and the standards are always defined by popular media, I do not believe there is anything natural about the preferences and advantages handed to someone whose looks are in fashion. I perceive this social phenomena as a combination of behavior programming and survival of the fittest.

You still can't connect why having that bias and using it as an asset is a negative?
If your angle is based on the merits, why someone better equipped for social tasks (be it by genes or behavior) doesn't deserve the advantage?

You could have a point about the very nature of liking "pretty" people and things, but how would you go about that? Is a world without aesthetics better? Huge grey towers without windows and only the necessary ventilation, no parks inside a city because they mostly serve aesthetics purpose? Should we all dress the same because why bother if aesthetics are not to be considered?

 

[godhandiscen]

You still can't connect why having that bias and using it as an asset is a negative?
If your angle is based on the merits, why someone better equipped for social tasks (be it by genes or behavior) doesn't deserve the advantage?

I do not believe that they should not have an advantage. The advantage is a fact, and I do not dispute that. However, as a consumer dealing with a sales person, you would perhaps be best served by evaluating the product you are buying based on the merits of the product and not on the good looks of the sales individual. Maybe if you have to deal with a sales rep on a day to day basis after purchasing a service, it is better to go with the good looking sales rep, but at this point the sales rep is part of the service, aka the product.

You could have a point about the very nature of liking "pretty" people and things, but how would you go about that? Is a world without aesthetics better? Huge grey towers without windows and only the necessary ventilation, no parks inside a city because they mostly serve aesthetics purpose? Should we all dress the same because why bother if aesthetics are not to be considered?

I never claimed that a world without aesthetic beauty is better, aesthetic beauty has a huge emotional impact. However, you can often optimize for objective results when you ignore aesthetics. Play defense rather than attack to win championships, get a discount on a car painted in the least popular color if it’s your daily driver, pick the boring looking executive assistant who will never make you lose an appointment, rather than the hot bombshell who will show up at 9:30 am with coffee only for herself, etc.

Also, I am not saying that individuals who have a beauty advantage should feel guilty and we should go on another “equality” quest as we seem to do so often. All I am saying is that it is pretty obvious that the bias exists and nobody really cares. I don’t want to fix the problem either. I just find it as another hypocritical aspect of our society.

 

[Keihart]

I do not believe that they should not have an advantage. The advantage is a fact, and I do not dispute that. However, as a consumer dealing with a sales person, you would perhaps be best served by evaluating the product you are buying based on the merits of the product and not on the good looks of the sales individual. Maybe if you have to deal with a sales rep on a day to day basis after purchasing a service, it is better to go with the good looking sales rep, but at this point the sales rep is part of the service, aka the product.



I never claimed that a world without aesthetic beauty is better, aesthetic beauty has a huge emotional impact. However, you can often optimize for objective results when you ignore aesthetics. Play defense rather than attack to win championships, get a discount on a car painted in the least popular color if it’s your daily driver, pick the boring looking executive assistant who will never make you lose an appointment, rather than the hot bombshell who will show up at 9:30 am with coffee only for herself, etc.

And thus, those example that you cite exist and also examples involving people in jobs that are not big on personal presentation.
Nobody cares how you look when you write a paper, do research or take a look at your portfolio of work for example, unless that portfolio is for an gig or modeling, which could even require that you are a special kind of "ugly" depending on the job.

 

[Star-Lord]

So you’re telling me that I, a middle-aged chubby bald guy, will go nowhere in life? My job as a team leader in a financial firm is as far as I go? That there must be a mistake in me earning £25K a year is an oversight? I’m okay with that.

The article is, of course, complete bullshit. You get out of life what you put in to it. If you sit around wallowing in self-pity, of course you’ll get nowhere. But put effort into your hygiene, self-care, and work, and you’ll get to where you need to be. I did. It wasn’t easy, but life never is.

 

[M1chl]

Then it's strange that many (I would say majority) of very rich people are very unattractive people. You looks maybe matter in 50-100k type of job and even then. Ehh I doubt it.

It's just one of those blackpill situations.

Attractiveness matter in social life, but then again only if you are extrovert.

 

[p_xavier]

I spent over $100k in plastic surgery and it was definitely worth it. I got so many opportunities afterwards, and yes it boosts your confidence and goes with it. Heck I get carded at 40 at liquor stores.

 

[nush]

My job as a team leader in a financial firm is as far as I go?

 

[GymWolf]

A lot of hot water discovering during these days...

 

[ForAcademicPurposes]

Ask Jeeves.

 

[FunkMiller]

It’s Darwinian. Nothing can be done about it. We’re talking apes that want to mate with the most attractive, the strongest, and the best apes to produce strong, gifted offspring.

Hot people will always do better than munters.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

It’s Darwinian. Nothing can be done about it. We’re talking apes that want to mate with the most attractive, the strongest, and the best apes to produce strong, gifted offspring.

Hot people will always do better than munters.

It's true.

I got done over once for a job, I was, I would say, the best prospect for it. Didnt get it. A blonde bird did, after seeing her I wasnt angry, i'd of done the same

 

[Coolwhhip]

It’s Darwinian. Nothing can be done about it. We’re talking apes that want to mate with the most attractive, the strongest, and the best apes to produce strong, gifted offspring.

Hot people will always do better than munters.

The ugly/smart people are working in labs for decades to find out a way to alter DNA, then everyone will be pretty.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

If I (more or less consciously and secretly) want to bang you, I’ll do what I can to please you.

 

[INC]

Well I'm a at least a 9/10, and my life is fucked.........perhaps this circus mirror i use is lying to me.....

 

[ClosBSAS]

I am a very good looking guy, and I have to say that yes, looks do help but damn, that list reads so fucked in some points.

 

[Porcile]

I'm a 10/10 looks running my own programming biz (WFH of course but my workers go in however), a cool 2 mil in crypto, 1 mil already cashed out, and a Japanese woman by my side (plus another on the other side if you know what I mean). This checks out.

 

[thefool]

Ugly people are definitely discriminated, sometimes in an almost bizarre way.

 

[INC]

Ugly people are definitely discriminated, sometimes in an almost bizarre way.

No one wants ugly genes in their bloodline, saying that, without it, Jerry springer and Jeremy Kyle would of never existed

 

[betrayal]

Essentially, the income gap between attractive and unattractive people is comparable to the gap between genders or ethnicities.

So there's no gap at all and it's all about personal choices after all (again)? Surpise, surpise. But well, it's businessinsider...so not really a surprise.

Apart from that, strictly speaking, this has almost nothing to do with science, but rather an interpretation of statistics.

Correlation does not imply causation. That is very clearly the case here. If you take a closer look at the subject, you will realize that attractiveness, regardless of a few genitic factors, also depends very much on personal responsibility, hard work and your own decisions. There is a huge body of research on this subject.

Physical exercise, proper diet, reasonably decent style (hairstyle, clothing, ...).
Congratulations. It is now almost impossible not to be attractive.

 

[Airbus Jr]

Theres no scientific evidence that support goodlooking people are more sucesfull in life

This is a weird opinion

 

[EverydayBeast]

There’s ugly people that are successful that make this argument look silly. Are you going to get bigger breasts if you get more $? Yes.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Attractive people also seem more likely to dress better and act more professional. So it helps with scoring jobs and moving up the ladder. It's part of the total packaged.

People arent stupid. They know if they're hot or not. And the hotties use it to their advantage to get farther in life.

 

[DragoonKain]

Probably because humans innately desire being around attractive people because humans biologically want to mate with more attractive people to produce more desirable offspring, to keep the line going. And even in situations where sex isn't the priority, I think it's just a biological thing in humans where for advancement, it benefits humans to bias toward those who are attractive.