Ugly? You May Have a Case

NY Times ^ | August 27, 2011 | DANIEL S. HAMERMESH

[neverdem]

Daniel S. Hamermesh, a professor of economics at the University of Texas, Austin, is the author of "Beauty Pays," published this month. 

BEING good-looking is useful in so many ways.

In addition to whatever personal pleasure it gives you, being attractive also helps you earn more money, find a higher-earning spouse (and one who looks better, too!) and get better deals on mortgages. Each of these facts has been demonstrated over the past 20 years by many economists and other researchers. The effects are not small: one study showed that an American worker who was among the bottom one-seventh in looks, as assessed by randomly chosen observers, earned 10 to 15 percent less per year than a similar worker whose looks were assessed in the top one-third — a lifetime difference, in a typical case, of about $230,000.

Beauty is as much an issue for men as for women. While extensive research shows that women’s looks have bigger impacts in the market for mates, another large group of studies demonstrates that men’s looks have bigger impacts on the job.

Why this disparate treatment of looks in so many areas of life? It’s a matter of simple prejudice. Most of us, regardless of our professed attitudes, prefer as customers to buy from better-looking salespeople, as jurors to listen to better-looking attorneys, as voters to be led by better-looking politicians, as students to learn from better-looking professors. This is not a matter of evil employers’ refusing to hire the ugly: in our roles as workers, customers and potential lovers we are all responsible for these effects.

How could we remedy this injustice?...

--snip--

But many attorneys would be willing to organize classes of plaintiffs to overcome these costs, just as they now do in racial-discrimination and other lawsuits...

[Badabing Badablonde]

God, issue a warning when you post that photo.........that there is a face that could stop clocks!

[Tublecane]

“Why this disparate treatment of looks in so many areas of life? It’s a matter of simple prejudice. Most of us, regardless of our professed attitudes, prefer as customers to buy from better-looking salespeople, as jurors to listen to better-looking attorneys, as voters to be led by better-looking politicians, as students to learn from better-looking professors”

It’s not prejudice, then, is it? Obviously on the level of the customers a case can be made, though it’s not fair to say out of hand that this is any more of a prejudice than our prejudice for, say, food that tastes good. We could perhaps eat nothing but sufficiently nutritious gruel and live long lives. But we are willing to pay for yumminess, just as we are willing to pay for attractiveness in the buying experience.

I digress. The main point is that even if the disperate treatement derives from prejudice on the part of customers it is most assuredly not a matter of simple prejudice. It is a matter of supreme justice, custmore preferences being what they are.

[Mr. K]

"“That must be why they hate Sarah so much - too beautiful for them.”"

This is also why she will win in a landslide.

[Tublecane]

“Guys like Napolean and Audy Murphy learn to adapt and compensate.”

In Napoleon’s case it wasn’t so debilitating as the myth around him has built it up to be. He wasn’t that short, for his time. It’s true, however, that his stature was a liability. More of a liability, I’d say, was his being a dirty Corsican. Both were diluted by his living in the aftermath of ‘89, which portended much for military organization.

That being said, imagine he had been 6’3’’. Maybe his men would’ve Valley Forged it in Russia.

[Lexinom]

Very well put.

[SES1066]

... that there is a face that could stop clocks!

More than that, it causes severe disruptions in the time-space continuum. Can you imagine being the White House Press Secretary for a GOP President and seeing that 'thing' sitting in the front row with the automatic 1st question 'right' when she was working for her former employers? How many Tums and how many bottles of Malox?

[Lady Lucky]

I always say, “Cash is king, but beauty’s queen.”

[Lady Lucky]

They say Attila was very short, too. And James Madison.

[SkyPilot]

The first time I heard the term "Look-ism" was back in the 90's. I thought it was a joke.

OF COURSE some people are more beautiful than others!

Even God acknowledges this! The bible has multiple references towards beauty, and how this distinction is a physical truism.

If physical ugliness attracted the eye, media executives would not hire women who look like this:

They would hire women instead who looked like this:

If we don't have beauty, then God has given us other gifts which we are to find and use. God sees the heart of every person. That is what is important. But, only PC leftists would try and make a "civil rights" case out of physical ugliness.

I suppose that in these evil days, where colleges are now giving scholarships to homosexual perverts based on their disgusting behavior (does a "Fister" get more money than others?) - then nothing should surprise us.

[the invisib1e hand]

I feel like I’ve just been run over by a bus.

[dsrtsage]

I remember watching some TV show some years back, that did situational studies with ugly women and attractive women.

One situation was a flat tire along a highway. Within seconds of the attractive woman exiting the car three cars had already stopped to help fix the flat. When the fat ugly woman did it, she had to jack up the car and fix the flat herself while cars were just whizzing by.

[Paved Paradise]

So what. Missing the point entirely.

[Paved Paradise]

No, I don’t recall. Meanwhile, what in God’s name is your point?

[Paved Paradise]

Not every short man is a tyrant like Napolean. I was beaten and abused by a man who was 6 ft. 4 in. to my 5 ft. 98 lb. frame.

[JudgemAll]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

A man who has green money stuff in his hand is much more attractive to females than otherwise (not that green is forever, but some worship it that way and our current crisis is betting on that worship).

A man who is happy with a girlfriend will also look a lot better and women/business will be after him.

It’s all in the energy.

[Lady Lucky]

It’s a petty point, but then it’s a petty subject.

[neverdem]

I was beaten and abused by a man who was 6 ft. 4 in. to my 5 ft. 98 lb. frame.

I was saddened reading that. I hope you took that as the opportunity to get an equalizer.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

This is true right down to voting. Ever since women got the vote, the prettier guy with the fuller head of hair has had an instant advantage over his uglier opponent. The taller guy already had a big advantage over his shorter opponent with the male vote.

It is a real and indisputable fact that good looks confer a massive advantage on a person, all things being equal. This has always been true and always will be true. Human nature never changes.

[tal hajus]

Don’t forget Mickey Rooney, and Alan Ladd. I remember hearing that he would have to stand on a platform to appear taller than some of his co-stars in close up scenes.

[Paved Paradise]

I survived it (sadly, I still occasionally have very bad nightmares). Good news is I met and married a beautiful man who loves me, loves God, loves my kid as his own AND even gets along better with my mom than I do (ha ha). We just celebrated 22 years in May : )