A new study shows that conventionally-attractive female students are more likely to do better in school than their less fortunate looking counterparts, while male students are not discriminated by their appearance. The study was conducted at the University of Denver and included over 5,000 students and 100,000 grades. Student were rated on how attractive they were on a scale of 1 to 10, based only on their student IDs. (Who really looks good in their ID?) The students were then categorized in one of three groups: more attractive, average, and less attractive. The IDs with their corresponding grades were then compared. The less attractive women received an average course grade that was 0.067 points lower than the other two groups.
Although the male students seemed to not be affected, males are not completely exempt from looks-ism. On average, male professors that are less attractive receive lower pay than the ones bestowed with the coveted chili pepper on Ratemyprofessor.com. The study may be new, but discriminating based on looks is a tale as old as time. Ancient Greeks had a term for this, known as Kaloi k’agathoi, the belief a person’s physical appearance was a reflection of their morality and social standing. This term became known as the halo effect and was studied at length, which found that people who are praised for beauty become better people than those treated poorly for homeliness. People who are less attractive on average are accused of more crimes, have longer and harsher sentences, are less likely to get hired, and in a case that justifies the study, are less likely get chosen for president.
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