New research has found physical attractiveness as a teen is associated with better employment outcomes as an adult.
The study by Michaela Benzeval of the Medical Research Council in the United Kingdom and her colleagues was published May 22 in PLoS One.
The link between physical attractiveness and socioeconomic outcomes could be due to cultural stereotypes. Previous research has found more attractive individuals are assumed to be more intelligent and friendly. “[E]mployers interviewing candidates for a position or discussing wages may look more favourably on attractive candidates, either because they perceive them to have more positive attributes or because they believe customers may do so,” Benzeval and her colleagues explained in the study.
It is also possible that physical attractiveness is indirectly linked to socioeconomic outcomes through other factors. Physical attractiveness might be an indicator of good health and high intelligence, which could both lead to higher socioeconomic positions.
For their longitudinal study, the researchers rated the attractiveness of 1,515 people in Scotland who were roughly 15-years-old in 1987 and 1988. At this time, the researchers also interviewed the participants’ parents to determine their socioeconomic circumstances, such as their employment status, housing tenure and income. The researchers also measured the health, self-esteem and intelligence of the 1,515 participants.
Those rated more attractive at 15 tended to have a better start in life. They were less likely to report feeling ‘not good’ about their health and lived in more favorable socioeconomic circumstances. However, there was no link between physical attractiveness and self-esteem.
The researchers were able to conduct follow-up interviews with 942 of the participants 20 years later. They found those rated attractive at age 15 had higher socioeconomic positions as adults on average. This association held even when their favorable circumstances in childhood were taken into account.
“This paper has shown that perceived attractiveness at age 15 is significantly associated with a wide range of adult socioeconomic outcomes even after controlling for the fact that such teenagers tended to have a better start in life,” Benzeval and her colleagues concluded in the study. “It adds weight to existing evidence from hypothetical experiments, specific small scale studies and a few general population studies, that adolescent attractiveness assessed in ‘real life’ situations can have long term associations with key outcomes for adults.”
The research was co-authored by Michael J. Green and Sally Macintyre.
