The moral hazards of being beautiful

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-moral-hazards-of-being-beautiful-94346e61

by hirundo • 3 years ago

52 17 3 years ago

djoldman• 3 years ago

fnovd• 3 years ago

Yet those of us who never got that genetic golden ticket should take heart: The halo effect appears to go both ways. A number of studies show that goodness often enhances our looks. A paper in PLOS One in February, for example, reports that people found faces in photos more attractive when they learned the subjects were honest, kind and not aggressive. The results suggest that “facial attractiveness is malleable,” the authors write. Or as Sappho observed: “What is beautiful is good and what is good will soon be beautiful.”

Well there goes the correlation/causation angle. I'm sure everyone has experience with seeing someone for the first time and thinking that they're incredible attractive until they open their mouth. The mind builds perception out of many signals and ocular vision is just one kind. Typically 'ugliness' is the presence of unwanted phenotypes, and in the absence of that 'ugliness' it's very easy to impute beauty.

I also think the idea that beautiful people become more likely to believe in a 'just world' is a strange way to think of it. If we're assuming a baseline level of selfishness, evolutionarily it would make much more sense for ugly people to try to shift consensus away from a 'just world' as doing so is likely to increase the amount of resources they receive. That is, instead of beautiful people recognizing their own privilege and thus lobbying for more, to me it makes more sense that people who don't see themselves as beautiful will tend to lobby for more beauty-blind practices. No one complains the deck is stacked when they're winning.

foogazi2• 3 years ago

No one complains the deck is stacked when they're winning.

People that are “not winning” have no power

If anyone of them manages to get access to power now they are on the winning team - rinse/repeat

ptsneves• 3 years ago

Luck plays a huge role in our lives. We are born completely on top of others' achievements and grow on them for a long time: family, society and state. Even the chance for us to differentiate is that, a chance. Only when there starts to be a record of turning points where one could have done bad/good choices can an individual overcome the survivor bias doubt[1].

It is important to recognize that record as otherwise we stop being individuals with no recorded contribution nor merit.

[1] I the hate survivor bias as it is generally hard to refute it in human behaviors.

psychphysic• 3 years ago

This is generally true, but one always has the opportunity to waste a good hand they have been dealt.

Similarly it's not quite fair to put it all down the luck. Unfortunately many traits are hereditary again here it's easier to ruin a hand than make a worse one work.

Extropy_• 3 years ago

What happens to us is out of our control, what we have is out of our control, it's pointless for one to concern himself with what he doesn't have. It's self-evident that the most one person can do is all that person can do, and it seems reasonable that the highest ideal a person can aim for is doing all they can do. Our lives are what we do, it's everything we do. Luck doesn't control our lives, we do.

wonderingyogi• 3 years ago

We can only control our actions, but what happens around us is outside our control. The best we can do is try to influence it, but even that is limited to those within our immediate vicinity. At some point, we must learn to let go and stop trying to control something we have limited control over. I am reminded of the Buddhism teaching that we have expectations in life and when those expectations are not being met, we suffer. Simply do your best, and accept whichever outcome.

rmorey• 3 years ago

Glad to see more attention being paid to attractiveness privilege. Probably the most under-discussed privilege in our society, relative to its impact.

giraffe_lady• 3 years ago

Well lynchings are back and one of the mainstream parties is openly calling for violence against sexual minorities. So maybe third or forth?

sinenomine• 3 years ago

Reminds me of Houellebecq's "Extension du domaine de la lutte":

"It's a fact...that in societies like ours sex truly represents a second system of differentiation, completely independent of money; and as a system of differentiation it functions just as mercilessly. The effects of these two systems are, furthermore, strictly equivalent. Just like unrestrained economic liberalism, and for similar reasons, sexual liberalism produces phenomena of absolute pauperization . Some men make love every day; others five or six times in their life, or never. Some make love with dozens of women; others with none. It's what's known as 'the law of the market'...Economic liberalism is an extension of the domain of the struggle, its extension to all ages and all classes of society. Sexual liberalism is likewise an extension of the domain of the struggle, its extension to all ages and all classes of society."

otherme123• 3 years ago

I feel that inteligence is even more under-discussed. I work in the academia, and here there is a generalized bitterness against people seen as "less inteligent" but more successful (bussiness man with more money, pretty people with better partners...) as it was completely undeserved.

Obviously, for the self perceived as inteligent and hard working people any privilege that is not inteligence is intolerable and should be fixed somehow. But if you have your PhD you somehow deserve all the privileges.

foogazi2• 3 years ago

I work in the academia, and here there is a generalized bitterness against people seen as "less inteligent" but more successful

Exhibit 1 that IQ tests don’t predict general intelligence

celim307• 3 years ago

As someone who is a late bloomer there is definitely benefits but also realized that I am almost always going to be the center of attention a lot of places I go

It’s not fun being in a coffeeshop and having middle age women blatantly stare at you and jockey to sit uncomfortably close. I’ve even had a few touch me without even speaking to me

I’m fortunate in that I don’t feel like my life is in danger but sometimes I just want to be left alone and yet if I go places I have to deal with the fact that eyes are on me and I’ll be approached when I don’t want to

rafaelero• 3 years ago

It's easy to make yourself ugly if you wish so. Just wear weird clothes.

justinclift• 3 years ago

Heh Heh Heh

Depending on your tolerance, this might be interesting to try out sometime:

https://www.nimbacreations.com/product/burn-victim-facial-tr...

Probably not in a location you're known though, and maybe not where people might react dangerously. :)

---

This might be easier to work with:

https://www.nimbacreations.com/product/slashed-smile-prosthe...

swalling• 3 years ago

This piece is begging for a followup that covers the rise in aesthetic elective procedures. The people who didn’t win the genetic lottery are paying to catch up.

It starts with the rise in dental braces (yes even among adults https://www.zocdoc.com/blog/the-adult-braces-boom-of-2021/) then goes to Botox or lip fillers and ends with the BBL.

The only recent year in which there was a decline in plastic surgery is when COVID cancelled elective surgeries, and then it shot right back up. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9886203/

proxiful-wash• 3 years ago

Your DNA literally changes based on your virtues especially as a kid, there is a reason in the Republic the Greeks called it absolutely important to order the soul as a child with these three practices: Gymnastics, Music, and Philosophy(living the life in question). I mean all the above and eating healthy food.

The moral hazards of being beautiful

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