‘Pretty privilege’: attractive people considered more trustworthy, research confirms

The Power of Beauty

What makes a person beautiful has fascinated artists and scientists for centuries. Beauty is not, as it is often assumed to be, “in the eye of the beholder” – but follows certain predictable rules. Symmetry and proportions play a role, and though culture and norms shape our perception of beauty, researchers observe a consistently striking agreement among people on whom they regard as beautiful.

The beauty market has been on a steady rise, reaching $430 billion in revenue in 2023, according to a recent McKinsey report. The fascination for the perfect makeup or skincare is fired up by the impact of perfect faces displayed on social media and enhanced by image processing and filters. But is all this money well spent?

Pretty Privilege

The short answer is: yes. In today’s fiercely competitive job market, the economic advantages of beauty are undeniable. Numerous studies have shown that attractive individuals benefit from a beauty bonus and earn higher salaries on average. Certain high-paying professions are built around beauty (such as show business) but what is more surprising is that for almost any kind of employment, beauty can lead to a positive halo effect. Beautiful individuals are consistently expected to be more intelligent and thought to be better leaders, which influences career trajectories and opportunities.

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It is thought individuals perceived as beautiful are also more likely to benefit from people’s trust, which makes it easier for them to get promoted or to strike business deals. The idea is that individuals who look better are thought to be healthier or/and to have had more positive social interactions in their past, which might influence their trustworthiness.

Does Being Attractive Make You More Trustworthy?

But does that theory hold water? In our recent paper, we set out to find out. We conducted an experimental study involving 357 volunteers, where we asked participants to take part in a short experiment on economic decision-making. The participants were randomly matched into pairs and played a game where one player had to trust the other, and the stakes were real money.

Our results confirm that those people who are considered to be more beautiful by our raters are also believed to be much more trustworthy. However, when investigating actual behavior, we see that beautiful individuals are neither more nor less trustworthy than anyone else. In other words, trustworthiness is driven by good old individual values and personality, which are not correlated with how someone looks.

Does Gender Come into Play?

Our results also showed that the beauty premium has been previously observed for men as well as women. We might have suspected that women, who are generally believed to have a higher degree of social intelligence, might be better at determining the trustworthiness of their partners. However, our results do not show any evidence of this. Women are on average rated as more beautiful and also rate others on average as more beautiful. However, women do not act any more honourably in the game than men. Finally, men and women agree in their expectations about who will be acting trustworthy or not, and thus women are no better in predicting behaviors than men.

Are Beautiful People More Suspicious of Their Peers?

The adage that “not everything that glitters is gold” is thus also true for beauty in humans. However, we might wonder who is more likely to fall prey to this bias. One idea is that people who are themselves often treated favourably because of their looks might be aware that this is not something that should influence who you should trust.

We found that the beauty bias is there for everyone, and even individuals who benefit from good looks can see behind the mask, they are as much influenced by the looks of others upon deciding whom to trust.

Conclusion

The beauty industry is thus right. Investing in beauty really is worth it because it creates real benefits. However, recruiters or managers should guard themselves against being fooled. One way of doing this is to make CVs anonymous and forbid photos in applications. But in many interactions, we see people who we have to decide to trust. Being aware of one’s bias is therefore crucial. Our results stress that this bias is very hard to overcome, since even individuals who from their own experience should be aware of beauty’s skin-deep value fall prey to it.

FAQs

Q: Is beauty a predictable concept?

A: Yes, beauty follows certain predictable rules, including symmetry and proportions.

Q: Does beauty influence career opportunities?

A: Yes, research has shown that attractive individuals benefit from a beauty bonus and earn higher salaries on average.

Q: Can trustworthiness be predicted by beauty?

A: No, trustworthiness is driven by good old individual values and personality, which are not correlated with how someone looks.

Q: Do men and women have different levels of social intelligence?

A: No, our research did not show any evidence of this. Women are not better at determining the trustworthiness of their partners.

Q: Is the beauty bias limited to women?

A: No, the beauty bias is there for everyone, and even individuals who benefit from good looks can see behind the mask, they are as much influenced by the looks of others upon deciding whom to trust.