The Unfair Advantages of Good-Looking People in Business
Studies show that attractive people are more successful in business. Society thinks they don’t deserve it. But they fall for them anyway.
“You, with your good looks, you had it very easy.” I was interviewing a renowned author and translator, and I asked him why some people seem to be overtly liked by others. Is it some like of charisma?
“People tend to admire better versions of themselves,” he told me. “And a good-looking person is what they want to look at, to do business with, to hire, to admire or love. If you have a pretty face, it’s much easier to find a job, to be accepted in a group and to succeed in life.”
I was fully aware that good-looking women have an advantage in the work arena (only because males are willing to hire them instead of equally qualified persons). Still, I hadn’t thought than men can have a similar advantage too mainly because I knew that I did not have it very easy.
Hard data and soft humans
I searched for the book Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful, by Daniel Hamermesh, an economist at the University of Texas. The data was overwhelming. According to many studies, “even in situations in which…
