Stock image of manicured hands holding a wallet full of cash.Photo:Getty
Getty
Pretty privilege— the idea thatattractivepeople reap unearned benefits due to their appearance — affects finances, with conventionally good-looking people earning thousands of dollars more annually than their less conventionally attractive counterparts.
Attractive people can earn a salary that’s 2.4% higher, and over 15 years, they earn $2,508 more a year, according to the study, “When Does Beauty Pay? A Large-Scale Image-Based Appearance Analysis on Career Transitions.” The research — published inINFORMS Journal Information Systems Research— was recently made availableonline.
The study examined the career outcomes of 43,533 attractive versus “plain-lookingMBA graduates." Their average age was 39, and study participants were heavily skewed towards male (71%) and caucasian (81%.)
Researchers found that financially, it pays to be attractive. Not only are attractive people rewarded with higher salary outcomes, those who are deemed the most attractive were rewarded with an “ ‘extreme’ attractiveness premium of over 11% for the top 10% most attractive graduates, leading to a yearly salary differential of $5,528.”
Stock image of an attractive woman brushing her hair.Getty
The benefits also extended to career longevity, the study says, noting that 15 years after earning an MBA, “an attractive individual has a 52.4% probability of holding a more desirable job than a comparable plain-looking counterpart.”
For the study, researchers had five people rate 659 profile pictures, and used that data to rank the other participants. They noted the attractiveness was rated on features that couldn’t be changed, like face structure, as opposed to hair or makeup.
However, as the study pointed out, there is a considerable downside to being considered attractive in the workplace: “Biases that drive an attractiveness premium in the workplace may also lead to the pursuit of (often unwelcome) romantic interactions or sexual harassment … it may be more likely to lead to sexual harassment for female employees, given the overrepresentation of men in managerial positions.”
“This research underscores how biases tied to physical appearance persist in shaping career outcomes, even for highly educated professionals,” Param Vir Singh, the study’s co-author and professor at Carnegie Mellon University said in a statement.
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source: people.com
