[wufufufu]

> We document appearance effects in the economics profession. Using unique data on PhD graduates from ten of the top economics departments in the United States we test whether more attractive individuals are more likely to succeed. We find robust evidence that appearance has predictive power for job outcomes and research productivity. Attractive individuals are more likely to study at higher ranked PhD institutions and are more likely to be placed at higher-ranking academic institutions not only for their first job, but also for jobs as many as 15 years after their graduation, even when we control for the ranking of PhD institution and first job. Appearance also predicts the success of research output: while it does not predict the number of papers an individual writes, it predicts the number of citations for a given number of papers, again even when we control for the ranking of the PhD institution and first job. All these effects are robust, statistically significant, and substantial in magnitude.

The paper is paywalled, but that's the abstract.

I'm curious about how much of that is self-sabotage. I don't think we can rule out self-perception of attractiveness as a confounding variable. Internalized attractiveness? If anyone has a good study about that, I'd be very interested.

[icegreentea2]

Link the paper: https://www.dropbox.com/s/km0f8wl27ip9czd/HaleRegevRubinstei...

(From university press release: https://news.ucsc.edu/2021/04/attractiveness-career-success-...)

[anonymouskimmer]

> I'm curious about how much of that is self-sabotage.

They all came from top-10 departments, so there can't be that much self-sabotage, at least at the beginning.

> Attractive individuals are more likely to study at higher ranked PhD institutions and are more likely to be placed at higher-ranking academic institutions not only for their first job

I'm curious how their production differs as undergraduate students to merit the graduate placement, and as graduate students to merit the first job placement. Especially in the context of: > while it does not predict the number of papers an individual writes

I'm also curious about correlations with personality factors, since it's known that some personalities are more oriented toward positive appraisal from others (whether this is positive appraisal for looks, or for academic production).