We Need To Talk About Pretty Privilege

hey guys it's Chelsea from the financial diet and  this week's video is brought to you by advisor.com   we're more than halfway through the year which  means many of us are taking stock of the financial   goals we set back in January including what we  can do now to make sure we stay on track through   the end of the year if you've been thinking of  utilizing the services of a financial professional   the tfd community has been lovingadvisor.com  getting to work with a living breathing financial   advisor has historically been Out Of Reach for  people with less than 250 000 in the bank despite   the fact that many of life's meaningful Financial  moments happen way before reaching that Financial   Milestone Robo advisors have tried to fill that  Gap and while they can be helpful depending on   your situation there really is no replacement for  one-on-one guidance and connections advisor.com   provides their clients with a top-notch  advising team for a fixed flat annual fee   if you have money resolutions for 2023 and are  feeling motivated to make positive changes think   of them as your financial accountability partner  their team of advisors work for you not Commission   and will help you to achieve your smart financial  goals through planning investing tax strategizing   and more schedule a free consultation call with  advisor.com today at advisor.com and start getting   on track to reach your goals for 2023 and Beyond  and this week we're talking about being hottest   and why it's actually not a Vibe more to the point  we're going to be talking about the economics of   pretty privilege The Good The Bad and The you  guessed it ugly so for those who haven't been   aware there's been a bit of a discourse happening  on places like Tick Tock around the downsides of   being hot I actually made a tick tock responding  to one of these and sharing my own personal views   on the subject including an anecdote from when  I actually dated someone years ago who was I   think pretty objectively an extremely extremely  hot person now I do think that my husband today   is an absolutely beautiful man but this person  was like a part-time model and was the kind of   beautiful that gets you like stopped in the  street and given free things which for a man   is a pretty unusual level of beauty and in my Tick  Tock talking about the downsides of being pretty I   mentioned the fact that I tend to believe and the  research that I did for this video does seem to   back it up that there's a bit of a bell curve when  it comes to attractiveness and that while being   attractive or more to the point not unattractive  can confer a lot of benefits being insanely over   the top attractive can actually start to have  a lot of drawbacks and I'll never forget that   my boyfriend at the time once told me he was about  30 at the time so at an age where he was starting   to feel the most intense youth oriented form of  his Beauty start to fade that going through life   with fading extreme Beauty was like having someone  very slowly turn off a light around you which was   really sad to me at the time and still feels sad  but is also totally understandable as a phenomenon   because if you've sort of been moving through the  world in a falsely inflated way and it starts to   become a more realistic version of itself that  would probably feel like a light being shut off   so although many people were making fun of the  tick tocks of beautiful people talking about how   hard it is to be beautiful I actually found myself  really empathizing with them in a lot of ways and   remembering just how much it stuck with me when  I was up close and personal with someone having   that experience especially as they aged but I also  understand why the idea idea of complaining about   how hard it is to be hot could be pretty galling  to some people because what is undeniable is that   a certain level of beauty or again absence  of ugliness does confer huge benefits and at   the same time that people have been complaining  about the downsides of being pretty other viral   tick tocks have talked about what it was like  to go from being perceived as not attractive by   Society to being perceived as attractive from  an article in the New York Post one influencer   shared about the reality of becoming pretty quote  the beauty shared an old photo that showed her at   257 pounds when she claimed that she rarely  received any perks these days however kiel's   claims that she benefits from her beauty every  single day in a variety of ways as she explained   in a viral video it can be subtle things you  wouldn't notice not being charged for that   extra drink or dessert at a restaurant or having  someone offer to put the air in your tires instead   of seeing you struggle doing it and that's  obviously anecdotal but what's not anecdotal   is the massive ways in which being attractive  impacts our social professional and financial   outcome comes I've always been kind of surprised  as someone who does a lot of sociological and   cultural commentary how attractiveness really  rarely gets addressed as an axis of privilege   when in many ways it's one of the most acute ones  in terms of the material benefits that it can have   on our life and part of that I think is because  a what is considered attractive really varies   culture to culture for example in the U.S it's  very tied up with things like whiteness thinness   Etc but also because beauty is ultimately very  subjective it's quite frankly a bit off-putting   to hear people identify themselves as being a  member of the attractive Community even if most   would objectively say that that's true and it's  also not a static identity attractiveness can vary   depending on a ton of factors but in many cases  most acutely with age meaning that even the most   attractive people at a given point in their life  are likely to not be considered conventionally   attractive at some point so as an identity and  as a form of privilege it's less static and more   subjective than many other axes but to me it's a  hugely opportunity to never discuss and analyze   the benefits of attractiveness the way we do the  benefits of other identities because again the   difference that it makes in people's lives can be  huge as one Vice article puts it throughout the   world Attractive people show greater acquisition  of resources and greater reproductive success than   others says one study in another study from 2009  284 subjects rated photographs of people according   to how likable attractive and trustworthy  they perceive the person in the photographs   to be results show that attractive individuals  were deemed more trustworthy than unattractive   individuals and a lot of the benefits tend to  break down along gender lines with different   aspects of attractiveness being valuable to  different genders when it comes to men for   example few things have quite as much impact  as being tall or more to the point not being   tall quote the relationship between height and  earnings is non-linear for American men being   an inch shorter than average correlates with  annual earnings of about five percent lower   but being an inch taller than average does not  have much impact though men who are about 4 or   more inches taller than average earn slightly more  there are not many gains to being tall but there   is a clear penalty to shortness the shorter men  are relative to average the less they earn men   more than 20 percent shorter than average 66  inches or less earn at least 10 percent less   short women also earn less but they face smaller  wage penalties about half the magnitude of short   men but tall women do out earn their peers  each extra inch of female height adds about   one percent more in earnings the economists who  controlled for ethnicity and other complicating   factors estimate that non-short people tend to  work in skilled jobs that pay more and have more   education short Americans are also more likely to  be in poor health and to live in poverty and from   another article quote in fact Malcolm Gladwell in  his best-selling book blink takes this argument to   another level I pulled about half the companies on  the Fortune 500 list asking each company questions   about its CEO in my sample I found that average  CEOs were just a shade under six feet given that   the average American male is five foot nine inches  that means that CEOs as a group have about three   inches on the rest of their sex but this statistic  actually understates matters in the U.S population   about 14.5 percent of all men are six feet or over  among CEOs of Fortune 500 companies that number is   58 even more strikingly in the general American  population 3.9 percent of adult men are six foot   two or taller but among my CEO sample 30 were  six foot two or taller so it's undeniable that   certain markers of attractiveness confer huge  benefits financially and professionally and as   I mentioned it also generally leads to people  ascribing you better characteristics that have   nothing to do with attractiveness like being more  trustworthy likable Etc and this isn't shocking   when we consider just how much this association  between attractiveness and worthiness is ingrained   into us even as children for example it's pretty  much common knowledge by now but when we look   at Children's Entertainment like Disney movies  Etc It's usually the case that the protagonists   the love interest the hero the princess are all  beautiful while often the villains are defined by   their physical unattractiveness and sometimes the  connection between being unattractive and being   evil is made explicit and direct these characters  are ugly because they're evil and their outward   appearance is a reflection of their unworthy  Interiors but one of the interesting questions   about pretty privilege is whether or not some  of the benefits that develop as a result of this   attractiveness is because of the attractiveness  itself or because of this kind of self-fulfilling   prophecy of how more attractive people are  treated essentially from birth quote there's   a link between attractiveness and extracurricular  high school activities such as Varsity Sports and   student government these activities may help  develop skills that are valued in adult labor   markets and attractiveness is also positively  correlated with proxy measures of confidence   one channel emphasized in the experimental labor  market paper of Mobius and rosenblatt and with   some of the so-called Big Five personality traits  particularly extroversion in the absence of   neuroticism the measures of high school experience  confidence and personality however have little   effect on the magnitude of attractiveness premium  when WLS respondents are in their mid-30s and   early 50s our evidence is consistent with the idea  that attractiveness is an intrinsically productive   attribute in early and mid-career labor markets  distinct from skills acquired in high school   personality traits and cognitive ability so long  story short there is some conflicting data on   whether or not the attractiveness from inception  leads people to develop traits that are beneficial   to them or that attractiveness just always allows  them to be perceived in a more positive way anyone   who's seen 30 Rock for example will remember the  infamous bubble episode with Jon Hamm that deals   with some of the potential downsides of being  perceived as hyper-attractive all your life   despite your actual competency or Merit but we'll  get into that a bit later but whether or not the   attractiveness privilege is more of a nature or  nurturer question what does seem to be clear is   that in our society there's more of a direct  penalty for being considered unattractive than   there is a privilege for being considered  pretty essentially we've kind of created a   situation where being attractive is all almost  considered the Baseline and people who are not   attractive enough are viewed as falling short  of that unspoken metric taking it back to Media   for example it's not terribly surprising that our  standards of attractiveness would be very high so   much so that unattractive people are punished  in comparison when attractiveness and perhaps   more importantly youth are considered a standard  across almost all of the media we consume quote Mo   canon teakin in 2010 emphasized that for females  ugliness may be a hindrance rather than Beauty   being valuable they write quote the level of  Beauty in high school has an effect on criminal   propensity seven or eight years later which seems  due to the impact of the level of Beauty on human   capital formation and Hammer mesh and Biddle also  note that while Attractive people are paid more   the Premia for good looks are considerably smaller  than the penalties for bad looks and they are not   statistically significant so overall the data does  seem to paint a picture that there is a window of   attractiveness in which it's not necessarily hyper  beneficial but you're also not being punished or   penalized or facing obstacles because of that lack  of attractiveness however there is some data to   suggest that there are diminishing returns when  it comes to our levels of attractiveness and that   being the kind of hyper attractive that I talked  about at the beginning of the video can actually   present a lot of downsides again one of the  reasons why those seemingly obnoxious tick tocks   about how hard it is to be pretty don't actually  bother me that much from an article in spring.org   although attractive pretty and beautiful people  are generally more popular socially there is   some evidence that very attractive people can  experience social rejection from members of their   own sex and people in relationships also tend  to protect themselves from Beauty By ignoring   it research shows that when we're thinking about  love we automatically ignore attractive members of   the opposite sex probably to protect our feelings  about our own long-term partner and while it can't   be overstated that people of all conventional  levels of attractiveness can experience harassment   and unwanted attention in the workplace there  is also compelling data to suggest that very   attractive women in particular can be penalized  in the workplace for their extreme attractiveness   that can manage invest in a lot of things like  being propositioned for romantic interludes   not being taken seriously by superiors being  penalized by other women or just generally having   a perception that they are in the position they're  in professionally because of their attractiveness   and their sex appeal rather than their actual  Merit and while this is obviously an unfair   judgment to put on anyone what's unfortunate is  that in some cases that perception that a person   is in a position because of attractiveness and  not Merit and they're living in that hot person   bubble that a person is in a given position  because of attractiveness and not Merit can   actually sometimes be true from a BBC article to  psychologists this is called the what is beautiful   is good heuristic but fans of the sitcom 30 Rock  might recognize this as the bubble Jon Hamm's   character is remarkably incompetent yet manages  to live in Blissful self-delusion thanks to his   good looks as a doctor for example he can't even  perform the heilic maneuver but somehow manage   to drift through medical school thanks to his  natural charm according to the available evidence   the bubble is a reality in education for instance  Walker and free vert found a wealth of research   showing that better-looking students at school  and University tend to be judged by teachers as   being more competent and intelligent and that was  reflected in the grades that they gave them what's   more the bubbles influence inflates over the years  there's a cumulative effect explains Freebird you   become more confident and have more positive  beliefs and more opportunities to demonstrate   that competence and when it comes to potential  downsides of beauty there are even really worrying   ones when it comes to things like medical care  that more attractive people might receive from   that same article more worryingly being beautiful  or handsome could harm your medical care we tend   to link good looks to health meaning that  illnesses are often taken less seriously when   they affect the good looking when treating people  for pain for instance doctors tend to take less   care over more attractive people now I don't  say all of this to say that pretty privilege   isn't still real as we've discussed it is and  there are huge ways that it impacts people but   when you look at the data as a whole it seems more  clear that we are punished for being unattractive   rather than rewarded for being pretty this is  still obviously a form of attractive privilege   and similar to other axes of privilege creates  a situation where you are considered the default   and people who don't live up to that standard  are considered the problem but before we're so   quick to dismiss people who might point out some  of the downsides of being attractive especially   extremely attractive it's important to remember  that those downsides are real and especially for   women can be very difficult to deal with as  as we discussed before that perceived Beauty   will inevitably Fade with time even the most  attractive women at 25 will eventually not be   perceived at that same level of attractiveness by  the time she reaches 55 or 65 or Beyond so you're   essentially starting a game on Ultra easy mode  and then progressively moving to hard as you go   often not having developed the skills necessary  to compensate for that innate privilege long   story short the economics of being pretty are  complicated but what's very clear is that what   you look like has much more of an impact on your  life than any of us would probably like to admit and now it's time for our tfd society member  questions of the week reminder that amongst   all of the other perks you get by joining at  the join button below or at our patreon you   also get to ask me questions every week that I  will answer on my videos let's get into them the   first question says I'd love to learn more about  investing in startups and small businesses I've   seen a lot of websites popping up that host  investor meetings small businesses similar to   Kickstarter where a small business pitches you  to try to buy their product I'm a total newbie   but would love to hear your thoughts on this um  in general my thoughts on this are that it's a   very very volatile type of investment and usually  when you're considering investing in something   like a small business it should be more for like  ethical reasons or creative reasons or because   you want to see that business Thrive or want to  see more businesses like that in the world but   it really generally shouldn't be looked at as  a financial opportunity because it is so high   risk so in general I would advise against using  more of like 10 of your investable income to   go toward that kind of an investment and really  treat it as though you're going to a casino and   don't necessarily expect to see Returns on it  and are doing it for other reasons besides the   financial ones can you share your thoughts on the  Supreme Court affirmative action decision I would   love to see a video on that so we will do a video  on this for those who are not familiar here's a   quick headline on what happened with the Supreme  Court decision on affirmative action which is   essentially going to have a trickle-down effect  of dismantling affirmative action throughout   the country I'll go into more detail on the  video obviously but in general what I think   about these kind of issues are that we live in a  supremely unfair Society where benefits and wealth   and privilege are conferred on a relatively small  group of people and when it comes to things like   for example wealth inequality inherited wealth  Etc the Privileges of nepotism and networking   and connections we tend to totally ignore those  and to not be offended by them but are deeply   offended anytime someone from a lower income  or a more marginalized Community gets anything   perceived as an outsize advantage like we're  not rallying against people who get into Harvard   because they're a legacy whose father donated a  library to the college were offended by the person   who might have gotten in with a slightly lower  test score because they are from a historically   marginalized Community we're not upset at wealthy  people taking private jets twice a week to go   visit their friends and party in Aspen but we  are offended at the idea that a working single   mother on food stamps might get a little bit extra  money one month to be able to take her kids to the   movies so in general I think it's just really  indicative of a terrible Trend that we have in   how we perceive privilege and advantages in this  country and um yeah it's really disheartening but   I'll do a video on it as always guys thanks for  watching and don't forget to hit the Subscribe   button and to come back every Monday Tuesday  and Thursday for new and awesome videos bye

Channel: The Financial Diet

Views: 210,374

Keywords: the financial diet, chelsea fagan, lauren ver hage, personal finance, finance, money, lifestyle, pretty privilege, the hot person bubble, what it pays to be attractive, the ugly tax

Id: VI3mwVhoh1A

Length: 18min 12sec (1092 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 25 2023