Good looks lead to a good paycheck, study finds
When it comes to your salary, your appearance can make a big difference.
Even back then, better-looking teens are rated by others as smarter and having more personality and a higher chance of success. In many ways, that creates a self-fulfilling prophecy by setting the stage for success, according to the study.
That discrimination doesn't let up into adulthood, either. The researchers tried one experiment where they showed young men a photo of either an attractive or unattractive woman before putting them on the phone with her. The men often expected the attractive woman to be funny and sociable, and then they fulfilled their own expectations by eliciting that behavior in the phone call.
But as your mom may have told you at some point, looks aren't everything. The researchers did find some drawbacks to being attractive. Teens who were considered good-looking were more likely to drink heavily and have sexual partners, the report says.
And later in life, attractive women
have been discriminated against in some male-dominated occupations. One
Citibank employee said in 2010 she was fired from her job because her male co-workers found her too attractive.