
The economics of good looks - martincmartin
http://www.economist.com/node/21526782
======
olalonde
I used to be skeptical about those claims that beauty could help you out (in a
significant way) professionally, since I had never experienced it myself. I'm
not sure how I rank, beauty-wise, but I'm definitely not in the top 1%... in
North America (Montreal).

However, things changed when I moved to China. Chinese people tend to like
tall, light skin, light hair, light eyes, big eyes guys (i.e.: me). I'm
probably in the top 1% in China, if not more (I'm not bragging, ask any decent
looking guy who's been there that matches the description). I believe my newly
found handsomeness opened me up to multiple opportunities. Here's two examples
(among many others).

One time, in Starbucks, a CEO from a Hong Kong private equity firm started
talking to me. After some chat, he knew I was the ideal candidate for this big
software project he had in mind. Anecdote: He was reckless enough to use my
computer to login onto his business email account. Hell, he probably didn't
even notice I was running Ubuntu.

Another time, I met a guy in a bar. He started serving me drinks as he noticed
I was attracting pretty girls around the table. He told me that he owned
multiple consumer electronics stores in China. A few days later, he was
calling me to discuss the possibility of me opening up and managing a new
store for him in Hong Kong.

I like to think that "knowing I was handsome" gave me a lot of confidence
which is what really helped me out. But I'm having a hard time convincing
myself...

~~~
erikb
You have a plastic that states first class country living rights to any woman
that get's you. Living in China for some time you didn't realise the
"attractiveness" of that? I tell you something. I saw a 50 year old,
objectively ugly, stupid US guy in Hangzhou who most people wouldn't waste a
'hi' on. But Chinese girls were running after him, telling him how attractive
he was. You still think you are so handsome because Chinese girls tell you?

I mean, what should they say? "Marry me, because then I can live in Meiguo."
(for them it's not a big difference) Also I can't blame them to want to
improve their living conditions. Their live really sucks and it seems (not
sure, was there just for one year) that life really is harder for women there,
then for men. Don't be naive. At least know what really makes you attractive,
over there.

~~~
analyst74
What you said is definitely an important piece to note. But I think the OP's
finding is relevant too.

I was born and raised in China, and I get way better reception when talking to
women in China than I do in Canada or the States.

Coincidentally, I fit in the category of skinny, light skin and big eyes.

~~~
erikb
It is true that skinny, light skin and big eyes also have a different value in
China. But it still is hard to get sufficient data to support that one of
these is a factor for women who meet u. If you look "american", that alone
might be enough. Also if you find another country where other values apply. I
don't know for sure, but let's take a country in Africa. I guess (but don't
know!) that more masculine, strong and dark skinned men are better looking
there. The average North American or European guy will still have more success
there, then in his home country, because he still has "plastic" and money
value, that is a lot higher then for most black man. Even a Chinese man (who
sometimes feels treated badly by western girls) will have a lot of success in
Africa, beause the Chinese financial and living standards are higher then in
many African countries (also don't have any data to prove that "most" really
applys). And also in his own country a Chinese male will have better chances
with women, because there he works on an equal level, while he really has a
disadvantage in Europe and North America.

To make a long story short: I don't think "I get more girls in this country or
in that." can be a good model to compare the beauty values of women or bosses,
because other factors are more important.

------
ikarous
I have felt variously throughout my life both beautiful and homely. As a gay
man, I perceive the ubiquitous social pressure to be attractive much more
acutely than most heterosexual men. That pressure is not easy to shake off; I
can only imagine what women experience.

Case in point: a few years ago, I noticed that my hair wasn't quite as thick
and lush as it once was. I panicked, stupidly. Without performing adequate
research, I began taking a medication that blocks the hormone DHT. Only later
did I learn that this medication can subtly alter cognition by affecting the
production of various neuro-steroids. Obviously, the value of my mind vastly
outweighs that of my appearance, so I stopped taking the medication knowing
that one day, I'd probably lose my hair because of it.

Despite the obviousness of the choice, it was ridiculously difficult to
implement. The social imperative to be beautiful is powerful. Yet:

You aren't your hair. Or your face. Or your breasts.

It may very well be that attractive people have it easier than less attractive
people. But that's a problem with human nature, not with those not blessed by
beauty. Make reasonable steps to improve your appearance, then forget about
it. Self confidence, humor, and a compassionate nature will always win the day
with people who matter.

Ask yourself: is Steve Jobs as classically attractive as Brad Pitt? Who is
more accomplished? Isaac Asimov? Donald Knuth?

~~~
run4yourlives
>Ask yourself: is Steve Jobs as classically attractive as Brad Pitt? Who is
more accomplished? Isaac Asimov? Donald Knuth?

Depends on how you rate accomplishment. Your average female certainly knows
one of those people, perhaps two given recent news. But unless they are big
into Sci-Fi or computer science, they have no idea who Asimov and Knuth are.

In the evolutionary struggle to breed, Brad Pitt is the winner here, by a long
shot.

~~~
WildUtah
Pitt: 3 children (Age 47)

Asimov: 2 children

Knuth: 2 children

Jobs: 4 children

In the evolutionary struggle, I'd say all the fame and gorgeous abs haven't
created Ramses-style success for Pitt. Academic reputation and billions of
dollars do less for you than simply marrying a nice girl who likes babies
would.

~~~
danenania
Yes, I think a lot of this focus on looks is just an exaggerated venting of
sexual frustration. When you're not getting any, it can feel like the best
thing in the world would be to become a Brad Pitt lookalike so you could have
your pick and go out on some huge bacchanalic binge, but there's a reason a
guy like Brad doesn't spend much of his time doing that sort of thing--it
isn't all that satisfying or fulfilling.

In reality, once you are able to reach a base level of intimacy and
satisfaction in one (or multiple) sexual relationship(s), how others perceive
your looks in general stops mattering almost completely, and the fortunate
truth is that achieving this satisfied state doesn't really require being some
sort of Casanova, just moderately socially active, comfortable with yourself,
and willing to put yourself out there occasionally. It may be slightly easier
to be happy in this aspect of life as a very attractive person, but in the
whole scheme of what it takes to be fulfilled, it's a fairly small advantage
really.

~~~
ajslater
..and looks stop mattering completely the moment people start speaking instead
of looking and deciding weather or not speaking will be interesting.

How you look signals what sorts of conversation are likely to be possible or
interesting. e.g. if you really like knitting, go talk to the person wearing
the nice custom sweater.

------
beaumartinez
You can't change genetics, but you can become fitter, leaner, and more
muscular, and wear flattering clothes.

~~~
alextp
Indeed. Living in a third-world country makes it really obvious that while
beauty is rooted in nature it can very easily be bought if you have enough
money. As you age, the niceness your skin is inversely correlated to solar
exposure and manual labor, and positively correlated with money spent in
moisturizers and other products. How fit your body is also depends on the
money/time spent on a gym and on the quality of the food you eat. Your hair
will also look as nice as the money you spend on it (even if you're bald), and
even teeth can be fixed if you have enough money at a young age. Finally,
beauty is socially defined, and over time the standards will shift to mirror
other aspects of society (in Brazil, for example, white people are generally
better off, so all standards of beauty encourage "looking white", by hair
straightening, makeup, etc. In places where rich people don't do manual work
and stay indoors all day being pale is considered pretty, while in places
where rich people can afford to go to the beach looking tan is considered
better).

------
parenthesis
"A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose
and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have
good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will
always look lovely."

— Roald Dahl (in _The Twits_ )

~~~
end550
I feel like that's a cruel thing to say. "You're supposed to put your guard
down when you're ugly".

~~~
dodo53
Or worse - reverse it and you have if I think you're ugly, you can't have good
thoughts.

~~~
reddit_clone
I wouldn't go that far.

But it is true (in my experience) that good looking people are a bit more
self-absorbed than normal.

------
Shenglong
Lookism is a little silly. Unlike race and gender, looks are something we
actively work on. I have a lot of gorgeous women in my life (even if I never
compliment them), and I _know_ they take hours each day to make sure they look
great. They spend effort in everyting from learning to put on makeup to accent
their appearance, to using moisturizers, masks, cleansers, eye cream, lip
gloss, to keeping a consistent workout schedules. Really, looks and knowledge
are really developed in similar ways. They're not things we can't change.

We're allowed to judge people on intellectual merit as well as physical
fitness, so why not on looks? You can work as hard as you want in an academic
area or in a sport, and chances are you'll still never be in the top 1%.
Likewise, your looks are also rooted in your genetic luck.

Other than stigma, I really see very little difference between academic merit,
physical merit, and looks.

------
jmjerlecki
I see this as a skill that can be improved – just like anything else. Even if
you don't consider yourself the most attractive person, having a strong self
worth and putting an effort into your appearance can go a long ways. There are
enough sites/books/friends out there to help you figure out what is a good
look for you. I have constantly harped on friends that it is amazing how much
dressing better can do for your career. Control the things you can control and
what you wear is certainly something you can.

------
markbao
Sure sucks for those without good looks, but I see it as more gas for the fire
to make yourself overcome that disadvantage.

~~~
Yhippa
Absolutely. Either accept your lot in life or try to overcome it. I can't see
a good way of regulating lookism. Hey, Abercrombie & Fitch have been able to
get away with it for years ([http://jezebel.com/5479980/american-beauty-a-
brief-history-o...](http://jezebel.com/5479980/american-beauty-a-brief-
history-of-abercrombies-hiring-practices)).

~~~
roel_v
Well, if we can't get away from lookism, we need to have ways to redistribute
the effects, right? We do it with smarts (if we assume that, in the aggregate,
smart people make more money), so why not with good looks? So, attractive
people need to sleep with the uglies, and the more attractive they are, the
more they should do it. We'll add a few fields to tax forms where you enter
your hotornot.com score, and a few months later if you're ugly you get sex
coupons to spend and beautiful people get an assigned amount of sex coupons to
collect.

(I usually use this argument to argue against wealth redistribution and
progressive taxing, but I guess it works the other way around too ;) )

~~~
dodo53
Well progressive taxation already redistributes money whether it's from
aggregate advants of smarts or looks. You're talking of non-economic
advantages, which are not redistributed for smarts either

~~~
roel_v
Oh you're right, this article actually disproves my point. Doh.

------
quantumhobbit
Looking good takes a certain amount of discipline. You have to eat right and
exercise and take time to groom yourself. I wonder how much of the increase in
success for attractive people is caused directly by their looks, ie greater
self-esteem and unfair treatment. How much of the increase is not caused by
good looks but correlates with good looks due to a deeper cause such as
greater self-discipline?

------
DevX101
There's a positive feedback loop involved as well. Beautiful people are more
likely to have others want to befriend them. This social practice makes them
more sociable. Which makes more people want to befriend them.

I don't know if anyone here has lost a significant amount of weight (50+
pounds) while they were still young, but they will confirm this effect. In
fact, this effect is often so strong, that people who have lost weight often
become very skeptical of people's motivations. People who had never noticed
them are now suddenly nice and friendly. This starts to make you wonder if the
interest of other people in you, is purely based on your looks or who you
really are.

~~~
symptic
If your store isn't bringing in enough customers you can upgrade the facade to
bring in more traffic, but it's still up to you to make the sale once they
walk inside.

------
spindritf
> It limits a person’s right to equal opportunity, reinforces the
> subordination of groups where unappealing characteristics, including
> obesity, are concentrated (ie, the poor, some ethnic minorities)

That doesn't seem to be true:

> Contrary to conventional wisdom, … the poor have never had a statistically
> significant higher prevalence of overweight status at any time in the last
> 35 years. Despite this empirical evidence, the view that the poor are less
> healthy in terms of excess accumulation of fat persists.

[http://www.overcomingbias.com/2011/08/the-poor-are-not-
fat.h...](http://www.overcomingbias.com/2011/08/the-poor-are-not-fat.html)

------
etherael
Somewhat interesting that most of these comments are about the accuracy of the
observations that looks have a beneficial impact in the stated areas. Is that
really up for debate with the amount of verification already done on this
subject?

I think a far more interesting question is how to exploit this global and
obviously negative fact.

1) Don't play the game, you don't want to bother being stuck in a peer group
where this is standard operating procedure. The fact that it is so widespread
is actually a bonus here because you can easily cut out association with a
huge swathe of humanity purely because they are simple beasts hung up on their
evolutionary drives.

2) Know that generally, others not playing the game are likely to be focused
on other areas also. Take their lack of focus on their appearance as an
indicator that this might be the case, try to see where they are actually
focusing their attention.

3) If your discard evolutionary metrics for lifestyle, largely you get to make
them for yourselves. This is an enormously freeing experience in and of itself
and I can't recommend it highly enough. If there's one thing life has taught
me it is that you do _not_ have to accept the measures you are constantly
barraged with as the only valid ones, and in fact if you don't, you will have
less market competition in the areas which you end up focusing purely because
humans generally don't do that.

------
TWSS
I love the comments that argue that since a preference for attractive (i.e.,
symmetrical) faces is hard-wired, we shouldn't try to legislate against it.
From what I remember of ev psych, suspicion of individuals who are not of our
group/tribe is also hard-wired - I wonder if those same commenters would
abolish legal protection based on race.

That said, as a woman in tech, the concept of "erotic capital" resonates with
me. I'm wildly ambivalent about it, though - the risk seems to outweigh any
potential reward.

~~~
reddit_clone
>I love the comments that argue that since a preference for attractive (i.e.,
symmetrical) faces is hard-wired, we shouldn't try to legislate against it

Well, it is also hard to quantify. How are you going to prove to a jury that
you are plain and thus got turned down?

~~~
lurker17
You can't in a single case, but over time and many cases, pattern of
discrimination can be suggest via statistical methods. This is how covert
racial discrimination cases are tried.

------
sp332
People pick you based on how _they_ feel about you. Sometimes they pick you
because you're nice, or funny. And sometimes just looking at you makes them
feel good.

------
youssifa
"Yet because ugliness is harder to define than race or sex, some argue that
anti-discrimination laws are impossible to maintain." Anybody else find the
premise to that statement a bit short-sighted? I just read an interesting book
called "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell, where he cites scientific studies that
prove many of our prejudices occur not at the conscious level, but rather
unconsciously. In other words, even if you personally do not consider yourself
a racist, a sexist, or a looks-ist (need a real word for that last one), you
can easily be swayed by such factors -- even if you are aware that you could
be influenced.

To assume it all happens consciously, and to consider legislation as the
primary way of preventing discrimination, is a bit short-sighted in my
opinion. Being aware of this concept is a first step, but efforts should be
made to control for unconscious bias as well. Companies have an incentive to
do this as they may be passing up better qualified candidates. Perhaps
developing a way to implement blind performance reviews or conducting non-soft
skills, technical interviews that test a person's cognitive ability behind a
screen could be one way to curb the trend.

~~~
lurker17
You may be interested in the Implicit Association Test:
<https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/>

It comes with a disclaimer:

"Important disclaimer: In reporting to you results of any IAT that you take,
we will mention possible interpretations that have a basis in research [...]
If you are unprepared to encounter interpretations that you might find
objectionable, please do not proceed further. [...]

I am aware of the possibility of encountering interpretations of my IAT
performance with which I may not agree. Knowing this, I wish to proceed.
[Click]"

~~~
youssifa
Yes, this test is actually referenced throughout "Blink" -- Really interesting
when you look at the results.

------
reddit_clone
Money can go a long way in mitigating lack of beauty (At least in men).

~~~
orangecat
For men, social status is much more important than either looks or money.

~~~
erikb
And often money walks hand in hand with social status. And concerning
attractiveness to women, that high correlation and what their women can buy
from their money often is enough "prove".

------
marze
Current studies show a positive correlation between IQ and looks. If that is
true, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to think the same factors that result in
good looks also result in a well developed brain, attempts to normalize pay
regardless of looks are misguided.

~~~
thisuser
How well does IQ correlate with intelligence?

~~~
VMG
Considering that it is designed to measure intelligence in a way that can be
objectively defined, I'd say it correlates pretty good. Can you think of many
intelligent people with a low IQ or unintelligent people with a high IQ?

------
csomar
Is there any idea to know if I'm a nice guy or not? I never had a girl friend,
or talked to a girl for more than 10 minutes alone. I completely ignore if I
look good or I'm bad. Any measures or software to estimate that?

------
johnwatson11218
Does anyone else think that this could be one more thing holding back
telecommuting?

Lately I have been trying to spot more of the soft factors that keep people
coming into offices.

------
marknutter
Love the affiliate links to the referenced books at the top of the article.

------
mikerg87
I call bullshit on this. If this had any truth to it, you'd think the entire
C-level in every corporation would be overrun with "beautiful" people.

I think someone saw Gattaca and made a bet with a colleage to see if they
could get something published based on the premise.

