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Oct 31, 2008 10:00 pm US/Central
Do Attractive People Face a Beauty Penalty?
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
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Victoria's Secret models dance in their candy colored outfits on the runway in the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images
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From the moment Sarah Palin exploded onto the national political scene, many Americans have been mesmerized by the 44-year-old governor of Alaska. From her varying hairstyles and signature glasses, to her controversial $150,000 campaign wardrobe and pricey make-up, Palin's looks are often a major topic of discussion.
"Sarah Palin is clearly attractive and certainly you see, especially men, react very positively to her appearance," says Dr. Catherine Eckel, Professor of Economics at the University of Texas at Dallas.
From pop princesses and movie stars to political newcomers like Palin, psychologists say our culture is obsessed with beauty. But is beauty all it's cracked up to be?
"In people's minds, there's a stereotype that attractive people are much better than unattractive people," Eckel says. "I think it's very difficult to live up to those expectations."
Eckel co-authored the study, Judging a Book by its Cover: Beauty and Expectations in the Trust Game, which examined people's perceptions of others based solely on looks. "People's expectations of attractive people are just too high," she said.
The doctor and author found that while attractiveness is rewarded initially, there's often times a punishment in the end for not living up to certain expectations. Eckel calls the result the 'beauty penalty'.
According to Eckel, when an attractive person doesn't live up to the expectations of others, they're punished with a harsh backlash. However, when a less attractive person doesn't adhere to those very same expectations, the punishment is less, if any at all.
CBS 11 News contributing psychologist, Dr. Sylvia Gearing, says the beauty penalty exists because people are too quick to judge. "I think we get quick glimpses of people and we fail to think critically about who they are, what they stand for, and what they've done in the past," she says.
Take Governor Palin, for example. Dr. Eckel believes the expectations placed on Palin were very high in the beginning. "I think she got so much attention, especially right at first at the convention because she was so attractive, but as people got to know her a little bit, they took her down off that pedestal and were a little harder on her," she explained.
Eckel went on to point out that Palin's attractiveness could be working against her, and things like her wardrobe and make-up bills will continue to dominate headlines. "Perhaps initially the press, when the press was accused of treating her badly, perhaps that was based on their expectations of her being so high," she says.
So, are the rules the same for someone who isn't famous? Does the beauty penalty still exist for them? CBS 11 News put the study to the test with pictures of everyday people, and found perceptions went right along with the results of the UTD study.
Of the dozen people we interviewed, each of them picked one person over another as being more trustworthy, and said their assertion was based on the fact that they felt the person was more attractive than the other.
When asked if we, as a society, tend to judge people based on looks, everyone we spoke to gave a similar response. "Definitely," said one woman. "As awful as it is, it definitely happens."
Dr. Gearing says there's only one way to get rid of the beauty penalty, and that's by learning before judging. "Psychologists always want the public to think critically," she says. "Physical beauty is one dimension of what someone brings to the table but it by no means legitimizes their agenda."
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