Does It Pay to Be Smart, Attractive, or Confident (or All Three)? A study explores "Relationships Among General Mental Ability, Physical Attractiveness, Core Self-Evaluations, and Income"

A new study from Timothy A. Judge, Charlice Hurst and Lauren S. Simon of the University of Florida explores the age-old issue of attractiveness and its impact on career success. The study appeared in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

"Few personal characteristics are more associated with success in life than brains and beauty. Although the raw materials of neither seem particularly manipulable (both are heritable and relatively stable across the lifespan), the benefits of being beautiful — and the penalties for homeliness — seem particularly unfair. Countless parents have assured their children that it is "the inside that counts," with the "inside" presumably including one’s intelligence and personality. Indeed, these characteristics do influence career success. Yet, although the inside clearly counts, a plethora of empirical research has demonstrated that when it comes to income, attractiveness makes a difference too."

"Although mechanisms for the effect of intelligence on income seem nearly self-evident, there is considerably more ground to cover with regard to the influence of looks. Little is known about why there are income discrepancies among attractive, average looking, and unattractive people. The primary mediators that have been examined to date are employer and customer discrimination ... occupational sorting ... and differential outcomes in the marriage market."

The study looked at 191 men and women between the ages of 25 and 75 who were interviewed three times six months apart starting in 1995. They answered questions about their household income, education and financial stresses and evaluated how happy or disappointed they were with their achievements up to that point. They completed several intelligence and cognitive tests and had their pictures taken. Several different people on the research team rated each person's attractiveness relative to their age and gender. The raters were men and women of varying ages. The authors then calculated an average attractiveness score for each participant based on those ratings.

The researchers found that physical attractiveness had a significant impact on how much people got paid, how educated they were, and how they evaluated themselves. Basically, people who were rated good-looking made more money, were better educated and were more confident. But the effects of a person's intelligence on income were stronger than those of a person's attractiveness.

"We can be somewhat heartened by the fact that the effects of general intelligence on income were stronger than those of facial attractiveness," said Timothy Judge. "It turns out that the brainy are not necessarily at a disadvantage to the beautiful, and if one possesses intelligence and good looks, then all the better."

The research did show that good-looking people tend to think more highly of their worth and capabilities which, in turn, led to more money and less financial stress. But, the study's authors note, these findings also should be a warning to employers who may subconsciously favor the more attractive. "It is still worthwhile for employers to make an effort to reduce the effects of bias toward attractive people in the workplace," said Judge. One good means of doing this, according to Judge, is to rely on objective measures such as personality and ability tests.

However, Judge wrote, education and intelligence still had a greater payoff than good looks when it came to their effect on people's level of income. He concluded that it could be more effective for people to build on important job skills and education before seeking the latest beauty treatments.

Full text of the article is available from the American Psychological Association Public Affairs Office and at http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/apl943742.pdf

Relationships and Going Places, Beauty, Employment, Meeting Places and Romance, Senior Women Web, Tam Gray

Does It Pay to Be Smart, Attractive, or Confident (or All Three)? A study explores "Relationships Among General Mental Ability, Physical Attractiveness, Core Self-Evaluations, and Income"

More Articles