Evidence: 13 Benefits of being Physically Beautiful or Attractive!
Being beautiful is a great thing, both to the beauty bearer and those who appreciate or feed on it! If being physically beautiful didn’t pay off, we wouldn’t be spending enormous time and money on maintaining faces or looks! And, by the way, the beauty industry (salons and cosmetics) is one the most lucrative or money-spinning industries on the planet! Let us dive in!
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In USA, averagely, a woman will spend 300,000USD in her life time on only facial make-up. In terms of time, a woman spends 7 minutes on her face each day (details here). In another study by OnePoll for Groupon, writes Kaitlyn at Byrdie, puts this life time figure at 225,360USD, amount that could pay your 4-year tuition at Harvard! The same study, cites Kaityln, puts men at about 175,680USD life-time expenditure on appearance.
In 2010, cites Abigail Tucker, Americans spent 845 million dollars on face-lifts alone. In his 2013 book, Beauty Pays, Daniel S. Hamermesh (the father of pulchronomics, or the economic study of beauty) writes that the average American woman spends 44 minutes on a typical day, washing, dressing, and grooming. And average man spends 32 minutes on a typical day doing the same! In 2008, writes the same author, beauty and related appearance products spending accounted for 5% of the whole year’s consumer spending, at about 400 billion dollars in total! The story is almost similar across Europe, the writer reveals!
Combined together, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania cosmetics market was 152 million dollars in 2017. Worldwide, the cosmetics industry was worth 55 billion dollars 2017 and is expected to be worth more than 429 billion dollars in 2022. Specific analysis by Asoko Insights report Uganda’s cosmetic industry to have grown by 50% from 2015 to 2018 to about 45 million dollars. It is expected to grow even more at an average annual growth rate of 4.7%. A 2019 report by Ministry of Finance, writes Daily Monitor, revealed that we spent UGX335 billion on cosmetics alone in one year.
Of course, for Uganda, it is hard to get exact figures regarding individual expenditure on beauty in terms of money and time. However, a good guess would see, averagely, a woman spending about 80,000UGX and 12 hours per month on beauty related causes. On the other hand, averagely, a man spends 40,000UGX and about 5 hours on beauty related causes per month. In a year, that is about 1 million and 144 hours for a woman and about 500,000 and 60 hours for a man. For life time (if we take 60 years as the average years a man or woman will live and then assume that beauty costs start to make sense at 15 years of age), a woman shall spend 45 million and 6,480 hours on beauty related causes. And a man will spend 22.5 million and 2,700 hours on the same causes. 45 million can pay up the 4-year tuition in any university in Uganda!
But why all this caring? Why all this spending on looks? Well, in the words of Hemermesh, Beauty Pays!
Physical beauty is associated with upward economic mobility, especially for women, and better social relationships. For example, cites Little et al., 2011, beautiful people have more dates than less attractive ones. Indeed, a 2015 study indicated that more than 92% of men would want a good looking woman while 84% of women highly regarded physical attractiveness for dating or romantic relationship.
Additionally, physically attractive persons are perceived to possess a variety of positive personality attributions (Eagly et al., 1991), including intelligence and smartness. For these reasons, beautiful people easily get employed or promoted (Watkins and Johnston, 2002), are easily forgiven by law or have their punishment reduced, and are easily accepted or welcomed. Concerning employment, a study by Heilman and Saruwatari (1979) indicated that beautiful women are helped by this aspect only when being hired for non-managerial positions!
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Indeed, according to Joss Fong’s article on Vox, companies with physically attractive CEOs fetch in more money than counterparts whose CEOs have been rated less attractive. Investment presentations made by physically attractive women are more likely to be accepted than those presented by less attractive persons, even when the latter are more innovative, relevant, and economically rewarding! However, notes Rainer Zitelmann at Forbes in his detailed exploration of various research work, the sex of the person evaluating matters! For example, cites Rainer, Maria Agthe and Colleagues found out that being beautiful pays off if the one hiring or evaluating you is of an opposite sex. Otherwise, insisted the researchers, being beautiful could be a disadvantage if the one hiring is of your same sex.
According to Hamermesh, a handsome man is poised to make 13% more during his career than a ‘looks-challenged’ peer! Hamermesh who, in his ‘Beauty Pays’ book, insists that beauty is a scarce commodity reports that beautiful women make less than the man’s 13% but always make up for the difference by trading their beauty or looks to marry men with higher earning potentials! Indeed, a 1984 study by Richard Udry and Bruce K. Eckland revealed that attractiveness gets females highly educated men with high income and reduces the probability of remaining unmarried.
On a weirder side, less attractive people are likely to save a lot since less is usually expected from them. In terms of social relationships, a 2006 study argues, less attractive are likely to surpass expectations and thus delivering satisfaction. Indeed, some people have expressed the relevancy of dating and or marrying less attractive persons since they do great in all things, including ‘bed’ due to a concept called ‘compensatory mechanism’.
A 2015 study showed that physically beautiful people are less distressed and are perceived to be psychologically healthier than their counterparts (Gupta, Etcoff, and Jaeger, 2015). Party, I suppose, this is because they are easily accepted, and have thrilling social circles, which in turn takes away loneliness and depression. In some other studies, beautiful children are more likely to develop good social behaviors and, if these behaviors turn out to be bad, the situation is regarded as unusual! Of course, when beautiful people are rejected, the disappointment can be harder than if a ‘less attractive’ person got rejected. This is because the beautiful one expects the world to turn around for her or him but the ‘less attractive’ one has no such high expectations!
Though not always, beautiful students do or should do well with academics. This, as reported by Gordon, Crosnoe, and Wang (2013), is because both teachers and fellow students are likely to give more attention to physically attractive students. This achievement is usually affected by other distractions common with beautiful people getting attention. For example, the attention from teachers and students may not necessarily be directed towards academics, but other issues, for example, sex, rumors, and other non-academics!
Politically, being beautiful may mean more votes! A 2010 study revealed that beautiful people are 20 times more likely to win over their counterparts. Additionally, naturally beautiful people are perceived as trustworthy and honest. This could partly explain their political upper hand. Also, when one is beautiful, communication is likely to be receptive and successful. This is relevant in politics. On the other hand, indicates a study, women who apply make-up have been generally judged as less honest and manipulative. However, the study noted, many of those who passed the negative judgment had earlier been rated as ‘less attractive’!
Beautiful people are confident and assertive than their counterparts. This means that beautiful people are likely to speak up when wronged and can also be good communicators.
Apparently, even young children like pretty faces. Studies have shown that, just like all humans, children can tell the difference between pretty face and unattractive one. And, the same babies attracted by physically beautiful faces (see here and here). In one study, the researchers plainly reported this: “We see from the results that children and especially girls have more trust in attractive faces”.
In summary, here are the advantages of being physically beautiful or attractive:
- Easily employed or promoted
- Can easily find a mate or partner
- Academically, teachers and fellow students give you time
- Politically, you have the upper hand
- Beautiful people are considered honest and trust worthy
- Beautiful people are healthier and less distressed
- Beautiful people can easily be liked by children’
- Beautiful people are favored by the legal system
- Beautiful people are confident, assertive and good speakers
- Beautiful people are intelligent, smart and knowledgeable
- Businesses whose CEOs are beautiful are likely to make more sales and their investment presentations accepted by investors.
- Beautiful women are likely to marry highly educated and loaded husbands
- Beautiful people can command attention and get listened to. Additionally, they are usually accepted and given space and time.