Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful - Literature review Example

Beautiful people deserve to be more successful than ugly people al Affiliation) Introduction Almost from the moment of birth, each of us is judged – silently, unconsciously and nearly instantly – on the basis of everything that goes into the mix of qualities known as “physical attractiveness”. These qualities include the shape of our facial features, length and style of our hair, mode of dressing & grooming among other qualities. This is also termed as “lookism” which is basically treating people in ways biased by their perceived individual level of physical attractiveness. This subject continues to be one of great interests resulting to in depth studies by sociologists, psychologists, and even biologists. This paper will exhaustively discuss the phrase “Beautiful people deserve to be more successful than ugly people”. A phrase that is the norm in many cultures especially those in the West. Beauty influences a person’s success that what you look like - or how others perceive your looks shapes your life in a dozen of often subtle ways from cradle to grave (Hammermesh, 2011). Beautiful people deserve to be more successful than ugly people. Research findings reviewed by Daniel Hammermesh, an economist at the University of Texas in Austin are summarized and discussed in his book Beauty pays: Why attractive people are more successful. Some of these research findings show that both attractive men and women on average earn 3% or 4% more than people with looks that are considered below average. This is a very “unfair fact” since not everyone is born good looking and most people considered ugly are pretty much stuck with their looks. It’s widely known that people who are considered to appear conventionally beautiful often have few barriers to success in the workplace; an issue popularly known as “lookism”. When it comes to lookism, beautiful and attractive people are more often than not hired sooner, are promoted more easily to become high ranking professionals in several companies, and are able to get more work related perks, as well as attract more people of the opposite sex as partners and spouses. On the flip side, people regarded to be unattractive often face several prejudices and unfair treatment everywhere (Hammermesh, 2011). A woman living in San Diego reports of her experience at a shopping mall “there in the store was one of the ugliest clerks you might possibly have ever seen. His face was quite uneven and rugged and people in the line were quite rude to him, making mean remarks and children even pointing out to him making him feel quite hideous. If the same were of a more attractive person, the shoppers wouldn’t even have noticed it if they were given the wrong change.” It’s important to identify the reason why most people are prejudiced by beauty (Sanderson, 2009). The main explanation is that most people enjoy the company of attractive people as it gives them aesthetic pleasure. A second explanation is one derived from assumption and personality that whatever or whoever possesses outward beauty must no doubt possess inner beauty too. Our beliefs on beauty are more often than not prejudiced. It’s possible that our beliefs create reality, and we tend to believe that beauty implies goodness especially at the workplace (Malakh-Pines, 1999). Even if attractive people do not possess inner beauty, our actions may encourage them to develop the positive traits that we expect from them. According to Vardanyan (2011), “people that are pleasant to look at often get preferential treatment in many little ways, doors are opened for them, and they get the best seats in restaurants and even get plenty of party invites.” Basically, recognition and appreciation comes without them having to do much. Many experienced managers would like to think and believe that they are able to overlook an applicant’s physical attractiveness, but they end up selecting an applicant with high physical attractiveness whose job qualifications merely match those of a less attractive candidate (Patzer, 2008). It can be argued that some of the world’s beautiful people regard their beauty and attractiveness as a curse, and not a blessing. Erin O’Connor, world renowned top fashion model is quoted to have said “there’s always a part of me that says someone’s going to come along and find me out and discover that am really normal (St. John, 2006). Looks don’t always lead to success and even many stars look quite ordinary. Many big stars really are average looking and we wouldn’t even notice them if we didn’t know they were famous. Top show host Jay Leno was rejected earlier in his career for a movie part because he wasn’t considered handsome enough. The casting director was quoted to have remarked “we really like Jay, but we feel his face could be frightening to children.” Most beautiful people automatically get noticed more often than not and for this reason they tend to sit back in their comfort zone. Ugly looking people on the other hand have to work twice as hard so that they may have their hard work and effort take them much further than looks ever would (St. John, 2006). Beautiful people are also prejudiced in a negative way and what may appear to be an advantage can also be a hug disadvantage because society discounts people who are good looking. They are enviable, but we tend to discount them. John Ruskin an art critic said once that “remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.” As a result of this prejudice, good looks become a barrier. A study carried out by Rice University found out that when it comes to physical attractiveness, bias is in the eye of the beholder. Employers are usually eager to hire a beautiful woman for a job where face to face contact with clients is important including in occupations such as receptionists, flight attendants, dietitians and other jobs related to public relations. One explanation is that employers think that female physical attractiveness correlates with perceptions of femininity (Sanderson, 2009). Beautiful people often do bet stunted off into jobs based on looks and mainly get excluded from many fulfilling careers. They become the greeter or usher at the PR event, the company receptionist, the sales person and not the marketing manager or the event producer. They often become the model not the designer. A study carried out by a psychology professor Prof Karl Kelley and a pair of undergraduate students namely Lori Nita and Brittain Bandura at North Central College in 2002 was able to observe how a manager’s decision to punish an employee was affected by the employee’s physical attractiveness and gender. Their data revealed that attractive and beautiful females were punished most harshly and attractive males suffered the least severe consequences (Fox, 2011). The explanation to this is that managers come down harder on an attractive woman than an ordinary looking one who had committed the same offence probably because business has a sort of love-hate relationship with beauty. Managers tend to be harsher and insensitive to these dynamics as they’d like to avoid accusations about preferential treatment and thus they feel compelled to mete out stronger disciplinary action. Conclusion Not all beautiful looking people are accorded with success on a silver platter. Beautiful looking people should not sit back and let their looks precede their hard work. Philosopher and writer Baltasar Gracian advices “a beautiful woman should break her mirror early.” Though a person may possess exceptional looks and many doors may open and faster promotions accorded than the average worker, it’s true that as the person ages, they will have to work harder and harder to hang on to their looks (Mankiw, 1998). Physical attractiveness is not always enough merit for success at the workplace, and beautiful people do not deserve success at the workplace when compared to ugly people. Attractive or not, everyone should work equally as hard. References Fox, V. (2011). Beautiful people. Chatswood, N.S.W.: Mira Books. Hammermesh, D.S. (2011). Beauty pays: why attractive people are more successful. Oxfordshire: Princeton University Press. Malakh-Pines, A. (1999). Falling in love: why we choose the lovers that we choose. New York: Routledge. Mankiw, G. N. (1998). Success and Beauty. Orlando: Elsevier. Patzer, G.L. (2008). Looks: why they matter more than you ever imagined. New York: AMACON Sanderson, A.C. (2009). Social psychology. New York: John Wiley & Sons St.John, R. (2006). Stupid, Ugly, Unlucky and Rich. London: Train of thoughts Art Publishing. Vardanyan, V. (2011). Panorama of psychology. Central Milton Keynes, U.K.: Author House. Read More