Beauty Assists a Man More

For those who are considered physically attractive, their appearance can act as a powerful tool for social mobility. Research published in the prestigious Social Science Quarterly supports this assertion. The study suggests that having an attractive face can serve as a driving force behind one’s upward social movement.

This research was conducted by Alexi Gugushvili from the University of Oslo and Grzegorz Bulczak from the Polish Academy of Sciences. They based their study on data collected from American youth who were tracked and interviewed at various points from the 1990s through to the 2010s.

During the course of this long-term follow-up, the interviewers made subjective assessments of the young individuals’ appearances when they were between the ages of 12 and 19.

The conclusions drawn by the researchers revealed that those individuals who were rated as being attractive or very attractive were statistically more likely to attain higher levels of education, earn higher incomes, and hold more prestigious jobs compared to their parents.

The benefits of an attractive appearance were observed in both men and women, although men seemed to gain more advantages.

For men, being good-looking provided a distinct advantage in all aspects of social ascension.

“Our findings suggest that for men, physical attractiveness plays a significant role in their professional success. Having good looks can contribute to getting a raise, a promotion, or securing desired jobs,” Gugushvili explained in an interview with CNBC.

While women also benefited from being attractive in terms of education and income, the effects were not as pronounced as they were for men. Interestingly, the study found that a woman’s appearance did not significantly impact her professional progression.

The researchers propose that income and education levels are more likely to depend on the subjective evaluations of employers and teachers, rather than simply being related to entering a specific profession. They suggest that one’s appearance could influence these subjective evaluations.

Gugushvili and Bulczak also noted that their results might have been influenced by the fact that their study was conducted in the United States, where there are significant levels of economic and gender inequality. They suggested that the pattern might be different in societies with less pronounced economic and gender disparities.

“It would be fascinating to investigate whether the same trends persist in more egalitarian societies like Finland or Denmark,” Gugushvili added.