The Privilege of the Good Looking

August 2, 2020

One type of privilege we never talk about is good looking privilege. Of course there’s white privilege and male privilege and economic privilege, but attractive privilege is nearly as pervasive, unfair and generates nearly as much inequality as these other categories. There’s an actual sub genre of economics that studies this called pluchronomics.

Good looking people are paid more, more likely to get jobs (particularly in a recession), are considered smarter, more healthy, happy, confident and trustworthy even without having earned those designations. Attractive servers get better tips, good looking quarterbacks are paid 12% more than homely ones (really, look it up), good looking professors make 6% more than their average looking compatriots. Good looking people are less likely to be convicted of a crime and receive a lighter sentence if they are. People just tend to treat you better and those advantages add up.

The rub is when good looking people come to think they deserve the accolades. Because of how they are treated they come to think they deserved that promotion, that they are smarter, healthier, happier, more organized and trustworthy when they simply are not. Good looking people tend to be lazier, less educated and less disciplined. Studies of high schoolers showed that not only were students aware of the advantages of being good looking, they’ve come to expect it. This reinforcement of social capital causes them to disengage from academic pursuits and focus on social rewards because that is actually more valuable, the result being a substantive lack of academic rigor by attractive people and a social marginalization of those who actually do their homework. Yes even our schools are teaching kids that good looking people can fail upwards and that you don’t succeed by being a nerd. The stereotype of the good looking idiot is actually a real thing.

Pretty privilege (as the pluchronomists call it) is getting worse in the age of social media, where your social and economic worth is determined by the number of followers and likes you get. Why get a job or an education when you can just take selfies all day? Tik Tok and Instagram have attractiveness algorithms that pinpoint good looking people for special attention that then gets them followers, ad revenue and influencer status. The downside of all this is that the same algorithms drop them like a hot turd once they gain a few pounds or start getting crows feet around the eyes. And without any job skills, education or discipline and having lost their good looks meal ticket there’s going to be a bunch of washed up, has-been ex influencers with no skills hitting the job market really soon (is it any wonder that Americans spend over $billion every year on facelifts?).

So if you’re good looking congratulations, you won the genetic lottery For now you’ll get that job you didn’t deserve, that promotion that should have gone to the educated nerd, all the friends, attention and followers you’d ever want, all without having ever done a single thing to deserve it. Yahtzee! Enjoy it while it lasts because once gravity sets in and the ravages of age start to eat at your ill deserved optimism the nerds will be waiting. With a vengeance