Have you ever been given a free muffin with your morning coffee? Has someone offered to take some work off your plate just because? Perhaps you always get served first at the bar even if there were people waiting there before you. If these things have happened to you, you might have something known as “pretty privilege”. Pretty Privilege is the idea that people who are viewed as more attractive or “prettier” than others receive more opportunities, attention, and rewards.
Pretty privilege might seem fake, however, many studies suggest otherwise. One study found that employers who were showed similar resumes from two people, where one candidate is attractive and the other is not, the employer will choose the attractive candidate (Gruman et al.,2016). People who are more attractive are also judged to be more interesting, sensitive, and sociable (Gruman et al.,2016). Being judged as physically more attractive can have many beneficial consequences.
Pretty privilege is just a consequence of the physical attractiveness stereotype. The physical attractiveness stereotype is the expectation that a physically attractive person has positive qualities while an unattractive person has negative qualities (Gruman et al.,2016). For example, an attractive person is more likely to get a higher job evaluation than their less attractive coworkers (Gruman et al.,2016). The physical attractiveness stereotype also occurs in higher education as well. Research shows that physically attractive students tend to receive high grades because they are perceived as more intelligent, even when they are not (Talamas et l.,2016).
In conclusion, pretty privilege is a real idea and can have a significant impact on people’s lives. The physical attractiveness stereotype, which underlies pretty privilege, can affect everything from job opportunities to academic performance. It is important to be aware of this bias and strive to treat everyone fairly, regardless of how attractive they might be judged. While we cannot always control how everyone else perceives us, we can try to treat others as fairly as possible.
References:
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications, Incorporated.
Talamas SN, Mavor KI, Perrett DI (2016) Blinded by Beauty: Attractiveness Bias and Accurate Perceptions of Academic Performance. PLoS ONE 11(2): e0148284. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148284
Like you touched on, I believe that it is important to recognize the presence of pretty privilege in the media. Many stars become famous because of looks, and the media touches on stories about people who are attractive. However, you barely ever see famous people who are unattractive. In addition, many people look up to celebrities and famous people and think that they are most likely good people. This can be a stereotype of pretty privilege because people think that attractiveness also means they will have a good personality. In the article I attached, TikTok stars brag about their pretty privilege and claim that this is a lot of the reason that they became famous. This is also the case for many people who receive popularity because people are naturally attracted to more physically attractive people.
Reference:
Court, A. (2022, January 6). Attractive women brag about ‘pretty privilege’ and the insane benefits they get. New York Post. Retrieved April 10, 2023, from https://nypost.com/2022/01/05/attractive-women-reveal-benefits-of-pretty-privilege/
The physical attractiveness stereotype has always been such an interesting concept to me, but living through life and watching those who are more attractive than others receive certain attention or personality attributes was sometimes frustrating when it came to generally unfair treatment. While I do not consider myself unattractive, I have been one who gets a free muffin or always served first at a bar. When reading your post, it made me think about other ways that the “pretty privilege” would be prevelant. One study that I read about that I thought was interesting was looking at the relationship between student beauty and grades. In a Swedish study, Mehic (2022) looked at the facial attractiveness of students “on academic outcomes under various of instruction” (Mehic, 2022, p. 1). It was found that when student had classes that were held in-person, facial attractiveness had an impact on academic outcomes (Mehic, 2022). When classes were moved online, the grades of the female students who were considered attractive declined and this was also true for attractive male students also (Mehic, 2022). I thought it was intruiging that the beauty stereotype is somewhat prevelant when it comes to academics as well.
Reference
Mehic, A. (2022). Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching. Economics Letters, 219, 110782. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2022.110782
Growing up I was very insecure, looking back I was pretty but I just never thought I was and always thought I was overweight. I grew up playing softball and I had coaches in high school tell me I was fat basically when I was not an d growing up my mom was bigger so she projected her insecurities on me also. Going off on my own for a little bit after high school I realized no matter my weight I was always being hit on and told I was pretty. So now being hit on almost daily I understand pretty privilege. To define pretty privilege, this article states, “In other words, something about a symmetrical face, which happens to fit into what society thinks is a good-looking face, may indicate strong and healthy genes. So it makes sense for evolution to push people to want more of these genes, if only for the survival of the species. Another piece of the puzzle of pretty privilege is what psychologists call the “Halo Effect.” “The Halo Effect means that if there’s one good trait in a person, you then associate a bunch of other good traits with that first good trait,” said Ho. “And usually the first good trait we’re talking about is physical beauty.” This explains why people tend to assume that conventionally beautiful people are also smart, funny, or talented. But Ho also pointed to how looking good sometimes has the opposite effect, especially for women. People might say, for example, that because a woman is so pretty, she must be shallow or not so smart”(Santos, 2022 ). Which shows there’s multiple things that can affect pretty privilege. There is often that stigma that pretty people are not smart and often try to use their looks to get what they want. Which if you got looks and can get what you want by all means use it to your advantage while you still got it. Some people just do not have to work for things like other have to and that’s just the reality of life sadly. I would not go off and say pretty people do not have a hard time there are many people despite their looks who go through a bunch of shit. Pretty people just have more access to things and have more of a chance of having an easier time them others.
References
Santos, R. (2022, November 15). A psychologist explains why life is easier for attractive people. VICE. Retrieved April 9, 2023, from https://www.vice.com/en/article/epz8pk/psychology-pretty-privilege-attractive-people
Your topic brings to mind research from Hamermesh and Biddle (1994). They looked at the Labour economics of physical attractiveness and pay, which became known as “beauty economics”. Good looks have a positive effect on workers’ earnings, with a so-called “beauty premium”. There are two main ideas as to why there are differences in income between people with different looks. One explanation is that physical traits reflect individual differences in health and cognitive ability, and affect social confidence, opportunity, and competence. These lead to differences in labor capacity and wage rates; Another explanation is that differences in labor ability cannot fully explain differences in wages caused by physical appearance, and that appearance discrimination still exists in the labor market. This is certainly a privilege of beauty.
Reference
Hamermesh D S，Biddle J E. Beauty and the labor market[J]. The American Economic Review，1994，84（5）： 1174−1194.
I think the physical attractiveness stereotype is interesting and is something that not many people are aware of. I think your use of the term “pretty privilege” helps to better explain this idea. In our world today, our physical looks play a prominent role in our work, school and social lives. People are treated differently by others based on the way they look. It is not necessarily intentional, but it does does happen often.
Individuals tend to assume that looks and personality are linked together. People correlate positive characteristics with someone who is more attractive and associate negative characteristics with someone they view as less attractive. The persuasive power of attractive people is greater than that of average or less attractive people. According to research, attractive people are at an advantage during job interviews, elections, and even legal proceedings. This begs the question of whether attractive people’s higher levels of success in life are a result of their character attributes or how others see them.
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications, Incorporated.