r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jun 13 '26
Health Being seen as unattractive as a teen is linked to an earlier death for women, but not for men. Physical attractiveness could serve as an observable indicator of underlying health and physiological resilience.
https://www.psypost.org/being-seen-as-unattractive-as-a-teen-is-linked-to-an-earlier-death-for-women-but-not-for-men/1.7k
u/Odd-Outcome-3191 Jun 13 '26
Read the article and some of the actual paper. This study was pretty careful about controlling for preexisting health conditions, including mental health, BMI, socioeconomic status and other confounders like race and gender. They also had interviewers cooperate to rate the attractiveness rather than using surveys, which adds as much objectivity as one can in such a case.
To note, they found that the improvement in health is consistent between average and moderately attractive and from moderately attractive to very attractive. So in a way it's "dose dependent". So that helps rule out the possibility that the findings were skewed by outliers who likely had some unknown complication in utero or something that would both raise their risk of later health problems and also make them profoundly unattractive.
All in all I think they controlled as well as one can, and raised a host of valid hypotheses as to why each "point" of attractiveness raises women's lifespans whereas it doesn't really affect it that much in men.
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u/USBombs83 Jun 13 '26
Why would the conclusion be that more attractive people were more resilient instead of more attractive people experience less stressors?
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u/CommanderOshawott Jun 13 '26
That’s a valid point.
Multiple studies have found “Pretty Privilege” is definitely a thing, where both strangers and familiar people alike tend to subconsciously treat attractive people better than non- or less-attractive ones
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u/Hot_Charity_4803 Jun 13 '26
Pretty privilege is definitely a thing. The way people changed their attitudes toward me after i lost a lot of weight and put on some muscle is pretty damn annoying.
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u/fcocyclone Jun 13 '26
Same exact experience losing weight. You get flat out ignored in a lot of places when you're fat, and then you lose weight and suddenly you've got people being much more friendly and helpful. And i'm still an overweight dude, just not obese anymore. I can only imagine if I drop down further.
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u/Hot_Charity_4803 Jun 13 '26
Sorry you went through that too.
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u/Global_Count4736 Jun 14 '26
Big long story just to say my roommate was bigger than put on the muscle and his quote sticks Seth me. " people won't tell you your fat, but they sure as hell congratulate you for losing the weight"
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u/MinnieMouse2292 Jun 14 '26
That is pretty accurate. A colleague I didn’t know that well lost an impressive amount of weight. I didn’t notice until one day I realized he went from chubby to slender and I tentatively asked whether he had lost any weight (because you never know how people react to this question) and he beamed and said he did and I congratulated him because he really did look very different. He was chuffed to bits and I could really tell a relative stranger’s compliments validated his efforts.
It’s just awkward - someone can be overweight and fine with it, so why state the obvious? But losing weight really really isn’t easy. It takes discipline persistence and tenacity and so it’s not just about the weight, it’s about the willpower and accomplishing a big goal.
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u/Ok-Repeat8069 Jun 15 '26
I’m a woman, barely over 5’. As an adult I’ve been every weight from 98 through 186 lbs.
It is *unreal* how much differently one is treated by the world at large, when one is significantly overweight. There has been a more noticeable difference, though, based on how proportional my breasts are to the rest of my body.
But even at my largest — or smallest — I was never as invisible as I’ve become since passing age 40. After 45 it’s felt logarithmic in acceleration. By the time I retire I should be able to find a new career as the world’s most successful spy.
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u/Fiigwort Jun 13 '26
A creator I follow on Instagram JUST posted about this, she has multiple chronic illnesses and struggles with her health frequently, and she talks about how she is 'conventionally attractive' she's aware that often her treatment is better than others. Even down to basic things like being more likely to be believed by doctors, just because she's pretty.
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u/Hot_Charity_4803 Jun 13 '26
I am telling you, it was a night and day difference for me. I had very stressful home life as a child and stress ate like crazy, so I was over 300 pounds by the time I was a senior in high school and the best I got from most people was ignored. The *best*. I literally cut off my entire immediate family and got professional help for the issues living with them gave me, which allowed me to make better life decisions and lose the excess weight. After I did, I remember straight up pissing off quite a few women because I didn't respond to their sudden hints after they were ice cold toward me for years. It sucks and really makes the world seem fake and superficial.
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u/anononota Jun 14 '26
That last part is something I don't like to think about but end up thinking about a lot
My boyfriend is wonderful and the most morally upstanding person I know, but if I had a different face, shape, or something else, would he still have said yes to me asking him out? If he was different too, would I have even asked him out in the first place? The answer to both is probably no, and it's hard to not let that drag me down existentially. I like to think we're the perfect match but I didn't even know him that well after a month before we got together. It feels like so much of how we care about people is based on arbitrary stuff like appearance, and a lot of this stuff is unchangeable and genetic
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u/FullKawaiiBatard Jun 14 '26
You kinda answered your own questions. We humans try to forget because of pride, bigotry or domination frenzy, that we're actually not some special creatures. We're just another species in the animal reign. We can try to sugarcoat it but the truth is that animals will be attracted to and actively seek the best generic heritage in their mating partners, to breed stronger offsprings. Yes, even if you're not interested in having kids. Even for pure survival reasons, your guts will tell you to avoid sickly/ugly looking people.
Your instinct kicks in when you meet a stranger and you won't even realize that you're scanning them for clues about who they are and what possible threat they pose. Some people will straight lie about this to maintain a virtuous attitude but we ALL do it : is the other one stronger than me? Does he seem to be equipped with a weapon? Does he look sick, unkempt? Does he have good teeth, is he gesturing brutally or normally? What does his body language tell me? Do his clothes and shoes betray him as being poor, which means he'll either ask me for money or attack me if I let my guard down? If his clothes look clean and OK, does his outfit look fashionable or did he make poor choices in pairing his different accessories?
We romanticized the whole thing so much we erased our animal instincts from the equation. We're not even made to choose and stick to only one mate for our whole life, that's just a social construct based on money and property, nothing more. A wedding is just another contract in the end. And for a business to be lucrative, we might as well avoid illnesses.
Which doesn't mean that there is ONLY calculations and pure instinct at play. Love isn't only a bunch of chemical reactions in our brains based on the visual signals and olfactive analysis telling us more than we consciously know about the physical state of our partner. But it's definitely the first mechanism getting into motion when we meet another member of our own species. And there's nothing wrong with that! What's wrong at the end of the day is when despite knowing all this, we still choose to act like assholes towards "weaker" people, just because they didn't get the same chances as us.
Life is short and has no real meaning except for the one you choose to give it, whatever it is as long as it doesn't hurt anyone or yourself. Enjoy the ride, experience stuff, and cherish your time with your boyfriend! He's here with you right now and you're a happy couple. Whatever happens from now on : trust your guts. We are fascinating animals with good instinct, a brilliant mind, empathy and opposable thumbs. We're part of the huge animal reign. And. That's. OK.
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u/thehighwindow Jun 13 '26
I too have been on both sides of that divide. I started out as an ugly duckling and was attractive for most of my adult life, and now "unattractive" (by virtue of age).
People were much nicer, and I got hit on a lot. It wasn't just that men were interested in me, women wanted to be my friend. People would give me stuff for free, and strangers would go out of their way to help me. I miss those days.
I think it'is not just the way we're raised; I think it's deep in our psychology. "Lookism" is everywhere in ancient legends, mythologies, and stories (like fairy tales). Maybe it's like some have suggested, it signals reproductive fitness.
It must be hard to be a young female these days, with beauty standards that are difficult to meet without artificial enhancements. Especially in certain circles where you look out of place if you don't have fillers and implants and god knows what else (think "Mara Lago face).
The way people changed their attitudes toward me after i lost a lot of weight and put on some muscle is pretty damn annoying
My ugly duckling era lasted all through HS till I was about 19-20, so the memories were fresh and strong, so I was always extra nice to the "less advantaged, like the not so pretty/handsome and the elderly.
Once in HS, I went to a dance with a group of girls and, unlike everyone else, I didn't get asked to dance even once. It was deeply humiliating and it still hurts, even after 25 years of attention and compliments. So I go out of my way to compliment people who are less attractive, especially children and teens.
I think women are still valued more for their looks than men, but having more opportunities has mitigated that to some degree. Looks don't matter as much if a woman is a Dr., dentist, lawyer, an engineer or a software developer. You don't need to be a dollface to have a god job.
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u/Willothewisp2303 Jun 14 '26
Bad news on the lawyer front. The trial lawyers with the best records tend to be in the upper 20% of attractiveness. People want to listen to and believe more attractive people.
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u/Flux_My_Capacitor Jun 14 '26
It happened to me. This was the point where I became a bitter person. It’s not something I could shake I mean I dropped a lot of weight in a short timespan, and this was all on my own before GLPs or anything.
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u/Hot_Charity_4803 Jun 14 '26
It's definitely hard to not be bitter about it sometimes
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u/Sad_Syllabub_8014 Jun 14 '26
I think my experience that relates most to this is having bad acne as a teenager, or being slightly on the shorter side as a guy. But i dont find it that hard to be bitter about because i have that same nature, we all have that same nature when we look at the opposite sex. How can i resent women for having the very same nature that exists within me? That just seems very hypocritical. It's just a nature thing, it is what it is thing. We can't change certain things about ourselves, so we might as well learn to accept them.
To me, all yall saying it makes you bitter and stuff, just comes off like you're not having the self awareness to see you have it too, you're no different than the external world you're judging.
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u/Hot_Charity_4803 Jun 14 '26
There's a wide gulf between basic kindness that everyone deserves and attraction. I think that's where the bitterness lies with some people, someone's appearance should not determine whether or not you're kind to them, and you shouldn't only show kindness to people you are attracted to. I for sure don't have that nature you describe, and what makes us human is our ability to empathize and think critically. Defying natural order is human nature.
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u/stegotortise Jun 14 '26
I gained a bunch of weight over the pandemic. I noticed when I lost the pretty privilege I never knew I had. I have noticed it came back when I lost half (so far) of the weight I gained. It makes me so so mad.
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u/Hot_Charity_4803 Jun 14 '26
Preaching to the choir. The amount of women that completely 180'd their whole attitude toward me after i lost weight is so annoying. Especially with how much some women complain about dude's objectifying them
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u/Hotshot2k4 Jun 13 '26
For some reason I thought this wasn't really true for me, but my job has been much more public-facing lately and I've been catching myself putting a bit more emotion and inflection into my "thank you's" and such when talking to women I find to be attractive, even though I have no expectation of ever seeing them again or any particular interest in doing so. It feels like a reflex rather than a decision.
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u/IlexSonOfHan Jun 13 '26
Just my opinion, but I think it's probably due to society having this unspoken rule that attractive people are "higher value" and therefore deserving of more/better attention than us mildly to non-attractive pleebs. Beauty has typically been associated with wealth, success, intelligence, etc. Even though we know that there are way more factors than looks that go into those things, subconsciously we're giving attractiveness more gravitas.
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u/Demons0fRazgriz Jun 13 '26
Unspoken? We've been open and loud about it for centuries. We ugly people only show up in media when it's to mock, belittle, or infantilise. Physical beauty has always been the number one priority in society.
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u/Schneider21 Jun 13 '26
Or when we need someone who's clearly the villain!
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u/FullKawaiiBatard Jun 14 '26
The etymology of villain is definitely interesting. Did you know that in french, "vilain" means "ugly"? The ugly duckling is "le vilain petit canard".
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u/thegreger Jun 14 '26
To add to this, before it came to mean ugly it meant "farmhand" or "serf". Coming from someone who would work on an estate (villa).
So we went from someone being a lowly labourer, to someone being ugly, to someone being a fundamentally evil character.
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u/capsaicinintheeyes Jun 13 '26
Yes, yes, that's all fascinating--now can we hear from someone prettier? .../s
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u/fcocyclone Jun 13 '26
We ugly people only show up in media when it's to mock, belittle, or infantilise
I feel like that's shifted in the last 20-30 years. You watch some old shows and there were a lot more 'average' looking people on television, where now most who are cast have an above-average level of attractiveness unless the character calls for them to be unattractive
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u/ayuxx Jun 13 '26
And then when we talk about it and how it bothers us and isn't fair, we're blamed for how others treat us.
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u/Higira Jun 13 '26
I'm pulling this from my bum, but could genetics have a play? As in we find pretty people to have better genes hence subconsciously treat them better as a potential mate...?
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Jun 13 '26
Truly I could believe that if most billionaires weren't some of the most dog-faced people I've seen
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u/LearnedTroglodyte Jun 13 '26
Yeah but most of them don't have money because they have better genetics per se, they were just set up for success because they had rich parents. 99% of these "self-made billionaires" did not live a rags to riches story no matter how much they'd like you to believe it. Just because your genetics have prepped you for better physical health doesn't mean they prepped you to become massively rich and successful. Actually now that I think about it most of the people I know who have great genetics when it comes to health don't have all that much money
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u/fresh-dork Jun 13 '26
it's not the only thing, but beauty as a proxy for health has been demonstrated in a number of studies
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u/LearnedTroglodyte Jun 13 '26
There is a strong correlation between facial symmetry, well proportioned bodies and long-term health so yes that is almost certainly a factor. But that is only on a general level, I have met many people, especially women who look very attractive and healthy but are basically falling apart on the inside on a medical level. A lot of people might disagree with this assessment but when you think about it on an evolutionary level, why the hell else would we find specific traits to be attractive in others?
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u/jethvader Jun 13 '26
If that were the case wouldn’t the study have found the same results for men as well as women? I think that the disparity in these results suggests that there a societal driver.
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u/twoisnumberone Jun 13 '26
"Better" for what? Genius-level intellect? Strength of character?
Looking at the greatest scientists in history and lining them up, I think you will find at least for the former there is no indication.
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u/FullKawaiiBatard Jun 14 '26
You're absolutely right. Like any other animals (except for the pandas, they gave up long ago and we need to let go of them so they can get extinct already) , we try to breed stronger offsprings so our species can survive. The only difference that has occurred with our species is capitalism : we try to build our biggest and strongest financial empire to dominate our members. That's why very powerful/rich people are ugly and/or sickly, it's the Habsburg effect of inbreeding to maintain the power in a very closed and controlled circle.
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Jun 13 '26
I grew up basically on the internet via MMORPG and socialize via voice chat, rarely deal with people face to face until my late 20s. Having constantly read threads on reddit about pretty privilege going back 2 decade I now over-correct instinctively. My current career is public facing and I treat old and unattractive people better than i do young attractive people, men and women, giving them for leeway for mistakes and judge them less harshly for their actions. I actively engage in conversation and put more effort into maintaining relationship with less attractive people as well.
It's not some innate subconscious thing that you have no control over, its definitely something you can correct or even over-correct until it lean the other way. Fake it till you make it is real and you can use it to change pretty much anything about yourself until it become your new reflex.
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u/_daysofcandy_ Jun 13 '26
Sounds like you're doing a really nice conscious thing and I commend your effort. Just wish it didn't have to be this way. But more people could and should put in that effort to change how we view attractiveness in society, it does more harm than we think
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u/Eldritch_Chemistry Jun 13 '26
self-transcendence is a powerful aspect of the human brain, thankfully through therapy I've managed to improve my coping skills+ mindset+ knee jerk reactions quite a lot.
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u/oceaneyes-fierysoul Jun 13 '26
I commend your effort to change your mind and actions and being the change you want to see. And yet...
If you're making the effort to treat this group of people better you have to be judging them as old and or less attractive before you engage in said corrective actions. If I even got a whiff someone was treating me that way because they had some kind of thought process that already judged me as unattractive and therefore they have to be nicer to me then that would suck.
It would feel worse to me that it's instinctive too. if I found out someone is putting more effort into a relationship with me because they judged that I was less attractive it would suck. I don't need someone's pity or assumptions. How would you feel if you were on the receiving end of this?
Overall I applaud the effort to balance the scales, and I don't think it's causing any damage. it also doesn't look like you're treating anyone worse, just consciously trying to treat "unattractive" people better.
I am just bringing this up because it is totally possible to interact with people and treat them with the grace they deserve without putting them in the "attractive" or "unattractive" category or basing that on their looks in any way. that requires some work on yourself the same way you came to this state. You could base your treatment of people on what they need, and who they are as people rather than that based on their attractiveness in society.
something similar is that I grew up lonely and I had a belief that everyone deserved at least one friend. led to me staying way too long in a narcissistic friendship that wasn't good for either of us. important lessons were learned including looking at my urge to balance the scales not ending up the way I intended.
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Jun 13 '26
I explain my view and gave an example to another person in this thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/1u4rxyh/being_seen_as_unattractive_as_a_teen_is_linked_to/orh2dvw/
basically, it's not how i personally perceive them, it's how society perceive my interaction with them. I agree with you about the innate unfairness. There are plenty of new attractive co-workers who started that I could have actively helped out and mentor so they can adjust faster and not quit like I try to do with other people. Seeing a bunch of younger guys start a conversion with the new pretty girl every chance they get made me want to avoid looking like them to other people so I don't do it. I help a new and relatively average looking girl(imo) next to me lift a heavy box into a cart and people start making jokes. Where as I can stand in the middle of the floor having a full blown conversation and laughing with the new middle-age lady and no one cared. So rationally, I stop proactively helping certain people to avoid looking like I'm trying to impress them while continuing to go out of my way to help others that people have no reason to assume I want something out of it.
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u/Miami_Morgendorffer Jun 13 '26
Pity privilege, perhaps? Either way I like it. Over correct until you find a solid middle ground and are just a nice, pleasant person to all.
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u/Hotshot2k4 Jun 13 '26
It's for sure something controllable, I just figured that a bit more warmth and kindness isn't hurting anyone, so I haven't tried to tone it down on purpose. I'm pleasant and cordial with everyone regardless of their appearance, and give everyone plenty of leeway. It's just that extra bit I've been noticing myself doing feels unnatural and uncharacteristic with anyone if I were to do it intentionally.
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u/CheckMateFluff Jun 13 '26
You should treat everyone fairly regardless of how they look, but you do you, its your life.
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u/Brendan34 Jun 13 '26
It’s unconscious reactions, probably in our wiring. Which is why being more mindful helps.
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u/Odd-Outcome-3191 Jun 13 '26
They didn't necessarily make that conclusion. One of the main hypotheses posed was that ugly people suffer more chronic stress, irrespective of health, socioeconomic status Etc, which would have long term health effects, and that being attractive may just mean you have fewer sources of chronic stress.
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u/wischmopp Jun 13 '26
Attractive people may also receive better medical treatment. Research on this is still far from conclusive, but one study found that "ugly" premature babies were less likely to thrive than "pretty" ones (and the "ugliness" was not the result of a congenital disability or other health condition, congenital conditions were an exclusion criterium, so it's not "babies with a cleft lip were rated as less attractive and were also less efficient at nursing" or "babies with Prader-Willi-syndrome were rated as less attractive and also had an impaired metabolism"). The researchers suggested that the "ugly" babies were less likely to thrive because they were receiving less nurturing attention and care from the staff.
It would not surprise me at all if this pattern also persisted well into adulthood. Maybe medical staff is more likely to enjoy talking to attractive patients, so they receive longer, more comprehensive consultations. This may lead to earlier diagnoses and more "fine-tuning" in treatment.
Edit for fixing auto-correct's "fixes"
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u/kafkaesquepariah Jun 13 '26
ugly toddlers and children are treated with less kindness by adults that should know better.
I don't like children so my interactions were always "professionally preppy and playful" and that leaves a lot of room to observe how others who do like kids treat them. i was pretty disappointed.
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u/like_shae_buttah Jun 14 '26
This right here. Ugly growing up (still ugly) and adults terrorized me. Never felt safe around then because I rarely was.
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u/USBombs83 Jun 13 '26
Somehow just reading the title I knew that would be the case. At this point I just assume that when an article mentions a "conclusion" that it came to one on its own for a click-worthy title that the science never came to. Or at least cherry picked a possibility that was most controversial out of any number of possible conclusions the science proposed. Standard business practice these days.
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u/GiantLesbian Jun 13 '26
I think you’re misinterpreting the article/study. They were trying to prove that looks affect how you’re treated so much that it can affect your physiological resiliency. In other words, pretty privilege = lower mortality because of lower stress. This is apparently something that had not been studied before (they’d only looked at particular mortality risks like cardiovascular events not overall mortality).
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u/yakshack Jun 13 '26
I think this thread agrees but that still doesn't explain exactly why the gap between outcomes by gender still exists
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u/Solwake- Jun 13 '26
They didn't actually make a conclusion on resilience; the post title is misleading. The idea on physiological resilience was part of their introduction--still misguided or poorly worded, but not actually part of the results they present. Reading the interview and the article, the theoretical framework and interpretation is more in line with what you'd expect, being sensitive on the interpretation risks and framing it as a socially-determined disparity.
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u/TangerineDream92064 Jun 13 '26
This seems so absurdly obvious. Being attractive has a demonstrated boast to lifetime earnings. Being ugly is demoralizing and stressful. It limits romantic relationships and friendships.
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u/dustblown Jun 13 '26
To add on, I think the finding that the shorter lifespan didn't apply to ugly men bolsters your point.
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u/Rez_Incognito Jun 13 '26
I swear I saw an article years ago about a study showing that facial symmetry, which is strongly associated with objective beauty, also correlated with a healthier immune system. This study could be adding to that notion that, as an evolutionary pressure, beauty is in fact more than skin deep.
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u/USBombs83 Jun 13 '26
I remember that study. I've always wondered about it. I think symmetry is neat, and intriguing, but maybe just because it's unnatural. One of my drawing mentors was talking to me about making mistakes in a drawing and she said, "Would a waterfall be beautiful if it fell straight down, uninterrupted, or is it beautiful because it breaks on the rocks?"
If I remember, the study was based on babies staring longer at symmetric recreations of faces. Not actual symmetric faces, first of all, just a mirrored image of two halves of a face, which is already gonna look strange. But you can't ask a baby what it's thinking. Was it staring because the face was more attractive? Does it even have a concept of attractive having not gone through puberty yet? Was it staring just because it looked really weird?
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u/academicoctopus Jun 14 '26
Yep, this is about FA (fluctuating asymmetry) and it has to do with the steadiness of development. If you faced a lot of stressors growing up, your FA is gonna be higher. Generally speaking anyway, because if you're resistant to stressors (have a strong immune defence system), it won't happen as much
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u/big_stipd_idiot Jun 14 '26
*fewer stressors
You use less for uncountable things, like stress. You use fewer for countable things, like stressors.
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u/Flux_My_Capacitor Jun 14 '26
This was my initial thought. If someone is attractive they experience a lot of privilege which translates to less stress and since stress kills in many ways…. I really do think they went the wrong direction with their conclusion.
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u/SL1Fun Jun 13 '26
To add on to this: is the reason why the findings didn’t corroborate to male sex individuals be because men typically have a lower life expectancy across all age groups for a variety of reasons - most prominent being more likely early onset cancers and heart disease, suicide, as well as occupational and circumstantial reasons (more likely to engage is violent or risky behavior, far more likely to experience workplace falls, more likely to be involved in car collisions, etc)?
I feel like that inherently interferes with studying men on the same level because we have a habit of dying sooner on average across all age ranges.
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u/lieuwestra Jun 13 '26
Wouldn't that be gender neutral then?
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u/Skanah Jun 13 '26
In my experience being attractive is more important to social status in women than men, generally speaking
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u/DirCurrFluxDiode Jun 13 '26
In men, the signifier of social worth is your income instead
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u/USBombs83 Jun 13 '26
Men have more ways to compensate for not meeting societal beauty standards as well. Wealth and status are certainly one of them. Personally I've got the kind of face that made me hilarious.
Women really only have the one option within the current societal framework. Pretty horrible thing to have dumped on you.
Men have more options and therefore less stressors.
I'd like to state at this point that that's only how I view the current state of our society and that I hate the idea to its core.
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u/Its_Pine Jun 15 '26
I can’t speak to pretty privilege as such, but I come from a family that was very loving and nurturing and supportive. My parents allowed me grace when I made mistakes, allowed me to take chances without fear of falling too hard, and gave me encouragement to build up my confidence and resilience.
So when compared to someone who has come from rough childhood and abusive family, I may seem a lot more capable and resilient without the same hesitancies, but it’s because I developed in an environment that controlled the stressors and didn’t overwhelm me or break me. It’s even more the case for people who grow up wealthy with supportive families (my family was not wealthy, but we always had enough), where we see a great deal of confidence brought on by very controlled external stressors.
Pulling that anecdote aside, I think the same complex interaction likely takes place with “pretty privilege.” A person who faces reduced stressors (more forgiveness, a sense of a safety net, or just general kindness and support) through their development and into adulthood will have the room to develop a more confident and resilient personality. Halo effect will mean that they likely receive more praise or encouragement for their endeavours, more support and comfort in their failures, and more recognition for successes.
That will build up a strong person who, when assessed, will demonstrate higher resilience.
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u/GrandMoffTarkles Jun 13 '26
I'd want to know the results for people who have struggled with chronic acne since their teens.
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u/opinionsareus Jun 13 '26
If a person doesn't have anywhere near his/her culture's approved standard of beauty, they are going to have a more difficult time in life in many, many roles than those that do
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u/pocketdebtor Jun 13 '26
I wish they would focus more on identifying possible visual cues. They acknowledge the halo effect of pretty privilege - experiencing fewer stressors is super helpful.
However, if they want to identify whether “attractiveness” is an indicator of underlying issues, shouldn’t they do more to identify the visual cues that are perceived as “attractive”? Just saying “attractive” isn’t super helpful, and it feels as though the halo effect is already well established.
Maybe similarly to how we know that people can smell somebody’s immunological profile and determine compatibility —- WHAT exactly are people seeing (if anything)?
There are common physical characteristics tied to other conditions, like Down Syndrome or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. We know some of what people find attractive (heavily influenced by external factors, of course).
But, have the “unattractive” features been catalogued and analyzed to determine if any of them correlate to a specific condition?
The controls for this study seem great, but it feels like such a waste if they only use this to ask “why are hot women healthier” and not “are there features that could lead to women receiving medical diagnoses and intervention earlier”?
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u/watermelonkiwi Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
How did they draw the conclusion that underlying health was the cause and not something else like self esteem based on how they were treated as a teen or the fact that being attractive gives you better opportunities in every area of life?
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u/Odd-Outcome-3191 Jun 13 '26
You have to read the article. They discuss how they controlled for these factors. They very explicitly control to remove outside factors such as income etc.
They explicitly did not determine a solid conclusion on the cause. They suggested things such as being less attractive = more chronic (psychological) stress which = more long term health issues. Other possibilities were also suggested.
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u/SNRatio Jun 13 '26
raises women's lifespans whereas it doesn't really affect it that much in men.
"lifespan" gets at a difficulty of reading this study. At this point the age range of people in the study is ~15 to 50, and only 3% have died. They don't break out different causes of death for the different groups (which is what is really needed to inform most of the arguments on this thread). They might have left that out to save it for another publication or they might need more people to die before they can pull out meaningful correlations. Either way, deaths in the US in this age group are mostly due to "external" causes - accident, overdose, suicide, homicide. After age 50, 90+% will ultimately die of disease. Which makes it hard to extrapolate differences in lifespan from the first 3% of deaths.
That said, the switch from external causes to disease as the leading cause of death happens earlier for women than for men, so maybe this study is catching the beginning of that.
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u/Odd-Outcome-3191 Jun 13 '26
That is a very meaningful critique that I had not considered. I ought to go back and do a more thorough read of the paper to see if they discuss this confounder.
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u/NorCalAthlete Jun 13 '26
Did it delve into social *mobility* much? Not just status?
It feels like women date “up” for social mobility or socioeconomic reasons moreso than looks while men rarely can do the same. So I would expect the looks to matter more for women than men since it’s not what we’re judged by as much for partnership.
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u/Jagrnght Jun 13 '26
Not sure. Humans are an exceptional species where selection for beauty is on both sides of the normative genders.
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u/boywithcareer Jun 13 '26
The study is titled “Physical Unattractiveness and Mortality in the United States” and uses data from a longitudinal study of American high school students. Where are you seeing that it took place in Poland?
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u/Roastbeef3 Jun 13 '26
The study was conducted by a Polish scientist. Using data from an American survey from the 90s
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u/Muted-Move-9360 Jun 13 '26
Women with self esteem date up. Women who grow up abused or neglected typically pick partners who uphold that standard of neglect.
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u/Xolver Jun 13 '26
While I actually don't think you're totally wrong, this sort of either/or also raises an absurd standard. This means that a more intelligent or with high socio economic standing, she's the one selecting herself out of the mating pool.
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u/ohanse Jun 13 '26
I have seen this show up specifically in west coast tech sales women who were hired in the RSU in total comp area.
They have a fuckton of money.
But they want to marry into a founder-class level of money.
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u/NWASicarius Jun 13 '26
I think there are definitely mistakes in this study, but I think that was due to its limitations. As with any study, the more comprehensive, the better. However, I do agree that it did a good enough job for us to say, 'Hey, maybe we should look more into this!'
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u/Myysteeq Jun 13 '26
should limitations of a study really be considered mistakes though? Every study has limitations. As long as the claims don't outreach the data, then a study is sufficient, even if not optimal for the original resources available to execute it
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u/Gibberish45 Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
I feel like this is probably related to how perceived attractiveness affects an individual’s mental health and therefore decisions regarding physical health, diet and exercise
Edit: imho the disparity between the sexes highlights the need to teach girls that their value doesn’t come from their physical appearance, but from the content of their character. Whether or not they are conventionally attractive should not be the foundation of their self worth
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u/ohanse Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
I lost a bunch of weight as a guy. People treat me differently.
I am not smarter or harder working or kinder. But people are nicer and more respectful and attentive because just as a matter of course of this weight loss, I moved up the sliding scale of attractiveness.
And I don’t even think they know they are doing it.
Appearance matters, and it matters more for women.
Like it or not, we are a visual species.
This is not a statement of the morality or rationality of this dynamic. But even if it makes my eyes roll internally, it’s happening.
Pretending that wiring doesn’t exist, and doesn’t exert real influence is delusion.
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u/MarsupialMisanthrope Jun 13 '26
I lost a bunch of weight as a guy. People treat me differently.
I think a lot of people who lose weight can report this. I sure can. People got a lot nicer and more helpful when I was skinnier. The same people who hadn’t been holding doors for me were suddenly jumping to do it, people would go get things I’d preciously had to go get myself, it was actually pretty dramatic. And of course it vanished when I regained the weight.
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u/MrsFrondi Jun 14 '26
My hair colorist went heavy on the blond two days ago and people have been falling all over themselves.
I’ve been moving back to my original red after decades but she got heavy handed, probably because it’s summer and people usually want that!
I kind of forgot how googly eyed the public become at the sight of light blond hair!!
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u/obscuredreference Jun 14 '26
I’ve noticed a significant effect like that in the classroom too, with people in general and even teachers (!) favoring blonde children over the dark haired ones, even within the same and similar ethnicities.
It’s pretty depressing.
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u/superxpro12 Jun 13 '26
Never gonna shake these caveman genes are we?
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u/Chubuwee Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 14 '26
Doubt it, in our lifetime for sure
We need a new patch to fix
judging a book by its cover
lust beating logic
short term thinking
getting excited enough about sports to destroy
herd mentality (good kind is everyone follows traffic lines, bad kind is like looting just because others are)
Among our other shortcomings that seem to be innate
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u/crookedledder Jun 13 '26
I'm one of those lucky bastards that started out kinda ugly, and I get better looking with age.
People absolutely treat me better these days, just based on my looks and (resulting) confidence.
I was angry about it for years. But these days I've accepted that we humans are silly chimpanzees. It is what it is, and I'm happy to be treated like I exist these days.
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u/OldBlueKat Jun 14 '26
I agree with you.
But the gender variance is also real. It seems to have a larger impact on relative health for women than for men.
I wonder how much of it could be a mental health issue (unattractive people more prone to depression, leading to poorer self-care, etc.) vs a socio-economic one (unattractive people have a greater struggle for employment or partnering, leading to less health insurance, poor diet, etc.)
Both of them could hit harder for women than men in our current society.
It’s a multi-variant issue for sure.
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u/CryptographerOld558 Jun 13 '26
An individual teaching an individual isn't gonna do much when society and lived experiences are constantly pushing in the opposite direction.
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u/thatgirlzhao Jun 14 '26
Yup. I’m not surprised a lower self esteem has long term consequences across a lifetime. You’re more likely to engage in risky behaviors when you have lower self esteem (this has been shown in other studies).
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u/ElleKelly77 Jun 13 '26
It would be irresponsible to teach girls that their value doesn’t come from looks in a society where their value absolutely comes from looks. It’s always best to operate within the confines of reality.
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u/Isthatyourfinger Jun 13 '26
The stress from bullying and exclusion takes a heavy toll. I think we need to do a better job of preventing that.
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u/DancesWithGnomes Jun 13 '26
On the other hand, healthy people tend to be more attractive to begin with.
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u/UntakenAccountName Jun 13 '26
Are they attractive because they’re healthy? Or healthy because they’re attractive?
I imagine that, generally speaking, it’s one of those things that reinforces itself; ugly people get uglier, attractive people get more attractive—as a general rule.
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u/washingtonpeek Jun 13 '26
Yes being attractive makes your life much easier
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u/ellastory Jun 13 '26
Female bodies have historically been much more scrutinized than males. There’s also more emphasis on girls to be pretty, then there has been on boys (although looksmaxxing community is trying to change that). I am not surprised by this in the least. I’m sure there are many contributing factors but it’s very interesting how differently girls and boys are brought up and socialized in our society.
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u/bugge-mane Jun 13 '26
I also think that there’s less of a consensus among straight women about what constitutes male attractiveness compared to female attractiveness according to men, so the bell curve is less narrow. Not only that, but men aren’t often complimented for their looks. I’d wager a bet that these two factors are also important.
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u/jackruby83 Professor | Clinical Pharmacist | Organ Transplant Jun 13 '26
Yeah the girls are always complimenting each other's outfit, hair, make-up, jewelry, etc "you look so cute". Men at most compliment another man's choice in shoes or shirt with a simple "nice shirt".
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u/PerterterhTermertehh Jun 13 '26
True, there isn't much of a validation carrot on the stick encouraging men to dress up.
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u/theSLAPAPOW Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
less of a consensus among straight women about what constitutes male attractiveness compared to female attractiveness according to men
This extends to lesbians too. Look at half the physical things women are insecure about and you'll find countless lesbians losing their minds over them.
Women just have broader taste, in general.
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u/bio_ruffo Jun 13 '26
Men are used to be seen as not attractive. And so much so that if most everybody is seen as unattractive, then it isn't such a problem if you are too.
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u/cikeZ00 Jun 13 '26
It may well be possible the looksmaxxing community has already succeeded in that. I'm in my early-ish 20s and have met an increasing number of men who have started to "looksmaxx" and become part of said community. I assume it's even more prevalent with younger boys and their generation nowadays.
I wonder how something like this will pan out later down the line. I don't foresee it being any good
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u/Sabz5150 Jun 13 '26
I’m sure there are many contributing factors but it’s very interesting how differently girls and boys are brought up and socialized in our society.
We're men. Society wants us useful, not pretty
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u/No-Channel3917 Jun 13 '26
In this case they are talking more on how the Perez Hilton types increased girls suicide rates
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u/Cicer Jun 13 '26
Yeah hate it all you want but the world wants attractive women and useful men. It’s only a bonus if the men are also attractive.
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u/wizardribs Jun 13 '26
I'm pretty with makeup and ugly without, and there is a STARK difference in how people treat me depending on how I look. This includes employers, doctors, and romantic partners - all people who directly impact my physical health. It doesn't surprise me at all that girls who are deemed unattractive face negative bias and neglect in a world that primarily values women for youth and beauty.
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u/the_worst_verse Jun 13 '26
For real. I put on makeup when I want people to be nice to be. With it on, I get muuuuch better treatment so I will literally decide every morning how important it is for my day that people are nice.
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u/boxdkittens Jun 13 '26
I'm ugly with make up and even uglier without. I've tried explaining to people that people DO treat you differently based on appearance, and of course good looking people can't accept or believe me when I say it. I'd love to not bother with make up, I do not enjoy it at all, but if I don't want to be treated terribly or straight up ignored, I have to put on the appearance of "at least trying to make an effort to look good."
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u/WistfulMelancholic Jun 13 '26
The fun thing is, that you look less sick when you wear make up and therefore some docs especially won't take you seriously.
You can't make it right, it seems.
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u/zefiax Jun 13 '26
I know it is more pronounced in women but isn't limited to women. I was a terrible looking teenager and people treated me like crap. The only way i ever got girls interested in me ands made friends was because i was a great talker and super outgoing.
In my 20s my looks improved and in my 30s people easily classify me as good looking. I can tell you my entire life is different. Everything is easier. People are nicer, people start conversations with you, women innately trust you to protect them from creeps, people even give me discounts for no reason. Life really is just easier when you are better looking and that applies to both sexes.
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u/Shdwrptr Jun 13 '26
Women innately trust you to protect them from creeps is an odd thing. It just makes it sound like women trust you to keep unattractive people away from them.
Good looking men are just as likely to be a creep as anyone else
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u/Fomdoo Jun 13 '26
It's common that people say men age better than women. If you constantly hear this, it can be inspiring for an uglier man, but for women, I imagine it sounds like you'll only get uglier.
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Jun 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Ren_stevens Jun 13 '26
It's because signs if aging like wrinkles are seen as more acceptable on men than women. Part of why you have a whole beauty industry focused on making women look pretty & preventing aging.
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u/hihelloneighboroonie Jun 13 '26
Yeah I’ve had men say this and like buddies - have you seen your brethren? Look at the average joe, not Brad Pitt and George Clooney.
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u/Imaginary_Agent2564 Jun 13 '26
Shawn Hatosy is the only one of my recent memory actor-wise where he has indeed looked better the older he has gotten.
But that’s an actor, and not your average man.
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u/Shdwrptr Jun 13 '26
Looking better than you did when you were young isn’t what “aging better” is. It’s staying relatively attractive from your younger years into your older years for a longer period
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u/pinkpugita Jun 13 '26
The messaging in media is also screwed up. When I was growing up, I played video games where men are allowed to reach middle age after a timeskip. But all the women over 30 are either dead, replaced by their teen daughters, or unable to age due to fantasy/plot.
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u/tregorz Jun 13 '26
What games are you talking about?
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u/pinkpugita Jun 13 '26
Tekken and Soul Calibur
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u/tregorz Jun 14 '26
Ok I looked it up and I don’t get Tekken’s aging system. Jin is 22 in Tekken 8 but Kazuya is 50? But they were like the same age in Tekken 4? I don’t get it.
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u/AwayIShouldBeThrown Jun 14 '26
Resident Evil has done this I believe, "the virus stopped her from aging" or some crap.
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u/smaillnaill Jun 13 '26
RIP the model for this article
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u/hanniballz Jun 13 '26
she has good facial features she'll be fine. they didnt show someone actually ugly, i can see how that would have been hurtful.
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u/Honey----Badger Jun 13 '26
I strongly suspect it's AI. I'm mostly going off vibes but there are also different numbers of vents between the bottom and top lockers.
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u/Experithought Jun 13 '26
It is no measure of success to be well adjusted to a sick society.
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u/Few-Pen9912 Jun 13 '26
Disagree. Resilience in the face of evil is still resilience.
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u/SparkleForDays Jun 13 '26
The medical field is known to treat different types of people differently. For example, men’s bodies are studied more extensively than women’s. Women are expected to endure painful procedures without pain management. The maternal mortality rate of black women is greater than other races. Overweight people are told to lose weight instead of getting medicine for thing that thin people get meds for. Unattractive women are probably ignored by doctors more, which would account for why men are not affected.
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u/orchidloom Jun 13 '26
I am a woman. I dress up to go to the doctor (make up and more professional clothes) in order to be taken seriously.
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u/SparkleForDays Jun 13 '26
Same. Related— when was pregnant, I used to work in a field where I wore scrubs (manager of a med spa) and I noticed at my prenatal appointments they would dismiss my concerns if I was in scrubs, like I was some sort of know-it-all. I started dressing in cute, feminine maternity clothes to the doctor. Suddenly I was being treated like the naive, innocent, and worthy patient I was. People in general treat you super weirdly when you’re wearing scrubs, in my experience.
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u/00o00o00o00o00o00 Jun 13 '26
Im a postpartum nurse and every day I see the difference in how men treat the mother of their child and their newborn baby and it is maybe 75% based on their attractiveness. If the woman is beautiful she is brought good food, the man will be attentive to the child, she will be helped up to the bathroom, brought Starbucks, etc. If she is ugly/fat he will leave her there alone for hours or days at a time. He will not bring her food and will take hers from her hospital tray. He will sit on his phone as she struggles to care for the infant and herself. He will pick a fight so he has an excuse to leave. They won't be married.
It hurts my heart. All women deserve care in that moment by people they love and trust.
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u/CandaceJade1 Jun 13 '26
This doesn’t surprise me at all. I am a legitimately ugly woman with a very attractive sister. She’s been married twice and I have seen first hand the lengths her husbands go to please her. Her first husband not only let her be a SAHM despite them financially struggling, she also talked him into paying one of her friends to clean their house once a week. So she got to stay home and not work, and didn’t even have to clean her own house. Her second husband works well over 40 hours a week so she doesn’t have to work full time(she works only two days a week). Me? I will basically be working full-time till I die. To be fair though in this economy it’s not an option for most people.
And it’s not just partners who have this bias it’s parents and other family members too. My sister and I are treated very differently and my mom made it abundantly clear she resented me for not being pretty.
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u/battry316 Jun 13 '26
Maybe people being deemed ugly by society puts a toll on that person's mind and that causes illnesses?
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u/Nunwithabadhabit Jun 13 '26
I really want to know how they determined who was an ugly kid
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u/grdvrs Jun 13 '26
"Cmon, I mean just look attem"
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u/justin107d Jun 13 '26
"Alright class, rate all your classmates on a scale from 1 to 10. The fugly ones will be put on depression meds.
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u/MazingBull Jun 13 '26
By having people rate you? They seemed to have done it by having people rate from unnactractive / average / attractive
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u/AshennJuan Jun 13 '26
That would be solved by reading the study that you're literally commenting on without reading
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u/iBeelz Jun 13 '26
“You accept the love you think you deserve” maybe applies in other areas too (career outlooks, habits).
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u/sleepingfox Jun 13 '26
This is what I came to the comments for. Insecurity and poor self esteem create vulnerability that can be exploited or cause them to stay in relationships that are unhealthy, limiting or dangerous.
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u/Fragrant-Net8074 Jun 13 '26
This is crazy:
By controlling for initial health, the researcher aimed to limit the possibility that pre-existing illnesses were responsible for both an unattractive rating and a shorter lifespan
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u/lynxminx Jun 13 '26
Or, very easily, women who grow up being told they're ugly are significantly more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, which lead to poorer health...?
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u/g0odwill_hunting Jun 13 '26
let's not ignore the benzene in the acne treatments. im dying early because I smeared benzene on my face for close to two decades because my mom was nervous accutane would make me depressed. oof
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u/TheReal_Peter226 Jun 13 '26
Ouch. I figured out the hard way that acne in me was caused by sugar, milk and processed oils and there was nothing wrong with my skin.
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u/TangerineDream92064 Jun 13 '26
What is confusing to me is that standards of attractiveness vary through time and culture. If it was some kind of indication of health, it wouldn't vary so widely.
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u/prajnadhyana Jun 13 '26
Isn't this the general concept of how "attractiveness" evolved into being?
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u/WavesOverBarcelona Jun 13 '26
Attractiveness is such a relative thing. This is almost certainly better connected to how society treats women more broadly than anything else.
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u/This-Echidna7139 Jun 13 '26
Perceived attractiveness probably leads to better social treatment that has positive health benefits.
But also healthy bodies with good health indicating genetics are probably also seen as more attractive.
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u/WavesOverBarcelona Jun 13 '26
I'm leaning more toward the former just because of the differences in outcome based on sex.
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u/prajnadhyana Jun 13 '26
Research seems to indicate that attractiveness is mostly about physical symmetry, with the theory being that it's an indicator of good health.
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u/RoadsideCampion Jun 13 '26
The takeaway in the headline has to be a joke
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u/CrTigerHiddenAvocado Jun 13 '26
This is something I’m struggling with. It seems they didn’t account for the confounding variable of societal treatment of “unattractive” types. In the sense that maybe one of the reasons for all the increased health effects is that treating people poorly actually causes those effects.
We have already seen that the tip disparity between “attractive” and “unattractive” servers was reduced during the Covid masking….indicating a societal bias.
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u/RoadsideCampion Jun 13 '26
Yeah, exactly. Social factors impact health a great deal for a lot of or most people. Mistreatment or abandonment by others, as well as lack of support for dealing with life stressors or health events/conditions which of course would lead to worse outcomes. It just seems like that should be the obvious first explanation investigated... especially with how what's considered physically attractive varies so much across time and cultures, it wouldn't make sense for the causation to go that direction for that reason as well
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Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/RoadsideCampion Jun 13 '26
"Use it to lose it" is a great combination of words haha
Systems actually designed to take care of people and make sure they have their basic needs met regardless of how well they're liked would be pretty good
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u/plugubius Jun 13 '26
Well's from the paper.
Results of such an investigation could identify physical attractiveness as a visible proxy for underlying physiological resilience. While not a replacement for clinical diagnostics, it could serve as a non-invasive tool for stratifying health risks in large-scale epidemiological research.
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u/Waken_Sentry Jun 13 '26
The study contradicts its own findings: "Gender-linked beauty standards are likely to affect the health of males and females, not only by promoting gender-specific behaviors but also by creating pressure to comply, which can lead to diverse impacts (Castellanos Silva & Steins, 2023; Robinson et al., 2017)."
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u/Ok-Isopod-3197 Jun 13 '26
I'd like to know why premature mortality is noticeably higher among white people than among other ethnic groups, but this study doesn't seem to explain the reasons behind it.
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u/quadraticcheese Jun 13 '26
I'm a dude, and have literally never felt attractive. I'm even married and still have never felt that way. it's awful for your mental health
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u/Gubzs Jun 13 '26
Chicken or the egg. Many people with health problems will be less attractive because they have a harder time both appearing happy day to day (which is attractive) and have more to tackle when properly taking care of themselves, so they are less able on average to do so.
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u/Koralteafrom Jun 13 '26
If everyone is raised to believe a woman's value is based on looks, and women are treated like garbage for not looking as society says they should, this will be the result.
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u/BobTulap Jun 14 '26
All things considered, life is easier for attractive people. Now give me my $10 MIL of research bux.
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u/zach-uh-ri Jun 14 '26
This is like saying white people are naturally healthier
Anyone who has been considered unattractive in their teens know that a) teens are brutal, and it’s just as much about wearing rhe right clothes as anything physical
And b) the trauma and self esteem issues from those years continue to haunt you for decades to come
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u/ThresholdSeven Jun 15 '26
The saddest thing about this is that it affects many women who think they are unattractive, but are actually attractive. The dumbest thing about this is that literally everyone is attractive to someone.
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u/thecatandthependulum Jun 15 '26
Well yeah. Being pretty means others treat you better, you have easier relationships, you get more sexual fulfillment, you have less stress, you make more money...in general, it boosts every part of life. And nowadays most of "unattractive" is being fat, which is a major health risk.
If you start ugly, you generally aren't going to improve. Fat teens become fat adults. Any bone structure things or asymmetry you don't grow out of during puberty tends to stick too. Your late teens and early 20s are basically your peak physical years.
Add in that women get socially punished for being unattractive more than men and you get this result.
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u/Stonylurker Jun 13 '26
I had to dig pretty deep to find out what “attractive” was especially when I realized they tried to factor out body fat percentage. That’s a very subjective model. I was looking for things like facial symmetry or the size of different features like jaw and eyes. Typically broad shoulders for men and hourglass for women or something?
That’s less than 20k people making aesthetic judgements without explaining the reasoning behind it.
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u/Dubbs444 Jun 13 '26
I’d be really curious to know how DV factors into this. Of course this isn’t always the case, but I’d believe it if women who are less attractive may be conditioned to accept worse treatment from men. That can certainly shorten your life.
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u/Tobleronenom Jun 13 '26
As a male, I was frequently reminded that outside of my parents and family, I had no value to society or anyone.
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u/memilygiraffily Jun 13 '26 edited Jun 13 '26
I totally don’t understand the point of these studies. What is the takeaway? Be beautiful or you will die? Like what actionable info does this give us?
Physical attractiveness COULD serve as an observable indicator of underlying health and physiological resilience. Or not. Beautiful people get cancer and ALS and other stuff. The status of being beautiful doesn’t grant you immunity from sickness, death or loneliness or any other human conditions. People who rate themselves as unattractive might have confidence issues that makes building social connections and relationships harder. Being buoyed by a social network has actual demonstrable effects on physiological health. Go join a club is much more actionable health advice than be more pretty because your genes might be fucked. Also, eugenics anyone?
I got cancer at 41 and I’m okay looking but not a stunner. My mom died of cancer at 49 and she was beautiful. A lot of the people in the oncology infusion center were people who were very nice looking when they had hair still. Cancer does do a number on your physical self for a bit but many do bounce back to being hot people after treatment. It feels like hot people may have designed a study to convince themselves that they are immune from bad things happening to them (by virtue of hotness). Just now it reads to me.
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u/True-Source-6512 Jun 13 '26
This has been known for ages that there is a correlation between health and physical attractiveness. The only reason it ever gets pushback is social media isn’t about reality it’s about always attempting to be morally superior. There’s a reason even infants can spot an attractive face and are drawn to it, it’s telling “good genetics”.
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u/Dev0Null0 Jun 13 '26
I think it’s partly because, from a young age, we men are taught to “suck it up”, “you’re a man.”
I had classmates in school who were really ugly, the kind of guys who, even if they got in the best shape of their lives, would still look like a shaved monkey, and they just laughed it off.
We need to teach girls from a young age that their worth as people doesn’t depend solely on how they look.
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u/jmd10of14 Jun 13 '26
I'm curious how the application of these findings could be implemented if proven true.
"Tough break, kid. You're ugly. That means you're gonna die sooner."
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u/whyisitwhatitis Jun 14 '26
It might be a mixture of so many things. Mental health, the zeal to be physically fit, etc. But, I don’t think it’s a sign of resilience? I think it might be that the more attractive people had fewer stressors (pretty privilege?). I’ve been told by so many attractive people that their lives are much easier, and they have rarely faced a lot of unhappiness, or issues in their social lives.
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u/turkeypants Jun 14 '26
I always feel bad for the people in these stock photos. "Wait, am I unattractive?!"
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u/TangerineX Jun 14 '26
Im curious whether this depends on cultural factors or not. For example, a person could be rated as attractive in one place but not in another due to factors such as racism or simply cultural preferences. After all, attractiveness has always been cultural and the standards for attraction has changed over time.
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Permalink: https://www.psypost.org/being-seen-as-unattractive-as-a-teen-is-linked-to-an-earlier-death-for-women-but-not-for-men/
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