Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and studies have now proven that a beholder may be the reason behind a beauty’s success.
An extensive study conducted in 1999 consisting of 9,000 high school students being followed all the way to their thirties was recently released to the public late last year. The study, conducted by sociologist Rachel Gordon, found that the student subjects rated as more attractive were given higher grades by their teachers.
The kids who were ‘better-looking’ reported higher levels of teacher attention, more friends, less depression, and also went on to become more successful with high paying and well respected jobs.
Other studies conducted throughout the years, such as those done by Satoshi Kanazawa and Daniel Hamermesh, have proven that there is a correlation when it comes to attraction and success, statistically proving that attractive people are typically perceived to be trustworthy and healthier and collected data has shown that attractive people get higher bonuses and more call-backs for jobs.
“Physical attractiveness is significantly positively associated with general intelligence,” said Kanazawa. “Our contention that beautiful people are more intelligent is purely scientific. It is not a prescription for how to great or judge others.”
Youth are typically focused on looks as a social aspect. With better looks typically comes social acceptance and less insecurity. A study conducted in Feb. of 2015 used 544 high school students as participants, and 54% of the student participants cited appearance as the top reason behind them feeling inferior about themselves. With high school only being a small portion of an individual’s life, many psychologists, such as A.G Miller, have cited it as “interesting” that something as seemingly “miniscule as one’s appearance could be a primary factor when it comes to talking about success on a more wider scale with the grading bias proven accurate with Gordon’s study.” With Gordon’s study comes controversy, people actually are beginning to open up about their own experience with the ‘grading bias’ and discussing the validity of the ‘grading bias’ actually being present in school settings.
“Yes, there is a grading bias and teachers have favorites because they will subconsciously give their students a better grade than they deserve and give them slack on specific assignments.” said Mann.
“The data backs it up so I have no reason not to believe in grading bias,” said Paxton Mann, senior.
Students have shared their opinion on their ordeals with favoritism in the school system among themselves and across social media platforms, but teachers are the party that most students do not hear an opinion on when the issue is at hand.
“I have no favoritism, and any student who has been in my class will know that. I like to think that my colleagues have the same level of professionalism. I guarantee that what you get in my class is the grade that you have earned.” said Jennifer Crisco, science teacher.
The study’s controversy opposing side cites it as being invalid and biased with its findings. Validity is always coming into questions when it comes to psychology studies, but individuals mainly have issues with this particular study’s basis on ‘how can you define physical attraction of an individual?’
“Based on the participant’s definition of ‘attraction’ it is possible that data could have supported the illusion that students that are ‘well-groomed’ (i.e nice clothes, good hygiene, make-up etc.) are capable of achieving more than students that do not have access to nice clothing, food, cosmetics, et cetera. The study could have been economically biased.” Crisco said. “How you measure success and attractiveness varies among different individuals. The ‘creep’ factor is also there, due to adult psychologists and teachers being asked to rank students whether they are attractive or not.”
