[jameshsi]

What I find interesting as well is that being attractive is not all roses, and sometimes it can work against you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr, credited with the US Patent for frequency hopping, was met with disbelief simply because people thought she was too beautiful to create such a profound intellectual contribution.

Many actors/actresses find themselves unable to break out of certain roles that match their look and caricature. In day to day life, we make assumptions about a person's personality based on how they look. There's a lot of "work" we all need to do to break out of the societal mold that's shaping other people's perception of our personalities if left to first impressions.

[jiggy2011]

Weirdly enough I did once have a woman find it difficult to believe I worked in IT because I was "too handsome for that". I've also seen comments on technical youtube videos that say stuff like "Dude has pale skin and a neckbeard, you know he's legit!"

I wonder if this is one of the reasons we don't have more women in IT, if there is a public perception of IT people = Ugly. The last thing many women want is to be associated with ugly.

[jacalata]

This (not Lamarr specifically) was briefly mentioned in the article - the 'attractiveness benefit' is actually not awarded to women in traditionally male fields.