The economics of good looks
The line of beauty
Aug 27th 2011
The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law. By Deborah Rhode. Oxford University Press USA; 272 pages; $17.95 and £15.99. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
Honey Money: The Power of Erotic Capital. By Catherine Hakim. Allen Lane; 304 pages; £20. To be published in America in September as “Erotic Capital: The Power of Attraction in the Boardroom and the Bedroom” by Basic Books; $26. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
FRANCE looked back this week at the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the walls of the Louvre. It was one of the most startling art heists in history, but the emotions it still arouses go beyond that. Stealing Leonardo da Vinci’s painting was like stealing beauty itself. And beauty has lost none of its power to bewitch, bother and get its own way, as three new books on the economic advantages of good looks confirm.
Physically attractive women and men earn more than average-looking ones, and very plain people earn less. In the labour market as a whole (though not, for example, in astrophysics), looks have a bigger impact on earnings than education, though intelligence—mercifully enough— is valued more highly still.
Beauty is naturally rewarded in jobs where physical attractiveness would seem to matter, such as prostitution, entertainment, customer service and so on. But it also yields rewards in unexpected fields. Homely NFL quarterbacks earn less than their comelier counterparts, despite identical yards passed and years in the league. Not everything comes easier: good-looking women seeking high-flying jobs in particularly male fields may be stymied by the “bimbo effect” until they prove their competence and commitment. But the importance of beauty in the labour market is far more pervasive than one might think.
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