As the world becomes increasingly more concerned with the ways that humans perpetrate bias across many different traits, such as race, ethnicity, income level, sex, gender, and sexuality, a spotlight has been shone on the advantages that people get for being good-looking. It’s another way some thrive because of their genetic luck, while others must work much harder for equal treatment.
Sure, looks aren’t 100% genetic. Some people can become more attractive by leading a healthy lifestyle or having cosmetic surgery. But genetics set a ceiling on how conventionally good-looking someone can be. The notion that some people are treated better (or worse) because of how they look is known colloquially as “pretty privilege,” but it stems from a term first coined by psychologist Edward Thorndike in 120: the halo effect.
Why are pretty people treated better?
The halo effect is a cognitive bias that states that when people have a favorable overall impression of someone, it influences how they feel about their specific traits. So, someone who people think is good-looking will also be seen as more moral, capable, and intelligent. Conversely, less conventionally attractive people are seen as more likely to be criminals or of lower intelligence.
The halo effect is a fancy way of explaining that hot people have many advantages socially and professionally. They also get a better shake of things from the legal system.
A Redditor asked the AskReddit subforum a blunt question: “What’s something attractive people can do, that ugly people can’t?” Here are 13 of the best responses to the question to give everyone a better idea of what pretty privilege means in everyday life.
1. Help from strangers
“Anyone can ask, but attractive people are so much more likely to get help from strangers. Just a sad little twisted fact of life.”
“Some people would even deny help because the person offering is unattractive.”
“This is what I was thinking. I used to be pretty, now I’m older and definitely less so, just being honest. I used to get people just offering to do things like fix my car or something in my apartment. Now it’s all wait in line and pay up which makes sense. Just an odd transition.”
2. Get good tips
“Get good tips as a waitress/waiter without REALLY trying.”
“A super hot friend of mine used to only work 2-3 nights a week because she made so much in tips. Haven’t seen her in a while, but I remember that conversation.”
“Good god THIS. I’m not spectacularly attractive, but I bartend a shift with someone who is. The level of obliviousness with her when she’s confused as to why guys slide her $20-$30 tips while I’m getting twenty percent at best is absolutely bonkers.”
A model looking beautiful. via Canva/Photos
3. Free drinks
“Go out broke and come home drunk.”
“Yeah, I have a couple of female friends who were super hot back in the day (2000-2004 time frame). One had Jessica Rabbit’s body, and the other was prettier, if not so curvy. It wasn’t uncommon to go out with them, and we’d all get free drinks because bar managers wanted them to be hanging out in their bar – people would apparently pop their head in and decide to stay based on how many/how hot the girls in the bar were. Our friends were sharp and realized they were driving that boat and would demand free drinks for all of us, not just them.”
An attractive woman.via Canva/Photos
4. Easier to make it in showbiz
“Singer / artist. Even though looks have nothing to do with talent. Makes me wonder how many amazing voices are not being heard because the record company old fat dudes don’t think the artist is hot.”
5. People assume you’re a good person
“Yeah, it’s called the halo effect. We tend to assume attractive people are nicer and smarter.”
“It doesn’t help that children’s books, cartoons, and movies like Lord of the Rings put such big emphasis on ‘pretty = good, ugly = bad.'”
6. Easy to flirt
“Flirt without cringe backlash.”
“There is a great How I Met Your Mother episode about that. If you’re hot (or if the other person is into it) super creepy actions come across as romantic. It’s part of the reason no one should ever take dating advice from romcoms.”
7. They’re treated nicely
“The funny thing is, pretty people constantly bitch that everyone hates them for being beautiful or think that they’re stupid. Like nah… maybe once in a blue moon you’ll run into a hater and it’ll stick out to you… but nah.”
8. They get the benefit of the doubt
“In general, get the benefit of the doubt. Applies to so many situations. Make a mistake, oh everyone makes a mistake sometimes. Acting mean, they’re probably having a bad day. Something unfortunate happens to then, why do bad things happen to good people?”
A good-looking man embraced by his lover.via Canva/Photos
9. Get the job
“Get hired is a HUGE one no one talks about.”
“As a female, if I was interviewed by a man, I got the job…interviewed by a woman? I wouldn’t. During my ‘not sure what I’m doing with my life phase’ I went through a lot of jobs and really did test out this theory.”
10. Interacting with kids
“I think for men, interact with children in a completely normal way. If an ugly guy tries to interact with a child, they’re seen as a creepy pedo.”
“Divorced dad here. When my kids were very young, I would often take them to parks on weekday mornings during my visitation (my ex would never allow me in whatever house she was living in, due to distance it wasn’t just weekends) to play because they usually weren’t very full or overcrowded. The first year I would often, but not always, get the stink-eye or otherwise be watched closely by other moms that were there, which was uncomfortable. I hit the gym and diet and lost over 40 pounds and gained a 4-pack that winter as part of channeling my post-divorce energies into something productive. The next summer, the reactions I got taking my kids to the parks was much better. Not perfect, but noticeably more favorable.”
A man sitting on a mountaintop.via Canva/Photos
11. Hot gay guys can do anything
“In the gay community, hot guys can do or say literally anything they want, even with an absolutely nasty personality, and they’ll still have a whole group of starry-eyed guys fawning over them. If you’re average—or God forbid, not even average—you’re either treated like you’re invisible (if you’re lucky), or treated like garbage (which is usually the case), regardless of anything else you may have going for you. Don’t even get me started on the complicated race and class strata enforced on top of all this. Nobody really talks about it, but it’s the reason I sort of scoff/laugh anytime some activist says the community is ‘supportive.’ I mean it is, if you’re a hot, rich white guy.”
12. Don’t have to work as hard
“Getting noticed quickly and hence promotions quickly. I’ve realized it’s easier to climb the corporate ladder being attractive and lazy than ugly and hardworking.”
13. You get the deal
“Haggling for price reductions on anything. I seriously had a friend who got discounted gas at the gas station from the owner’s son. She was hot with annoying baby voice and played dumb even with her phd and it almost always worked.”
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