The August 2024 issue of the recently released journal “Social Science & Medicine” published a study titled “Looks and Longevity: Do Pretty People Live Longer?” The study was published by Conor M. Sheehan, an associate professor at Arizona State University, and Daniel Hamermesh, a labor economist who studies at the University of Austin, Texas, jointly studied the link between attractiveness of appearance and lifespan. The researchers used the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, a survey that tracked Wisconsin high school graduates throughout their lives in 1957.
It targeted 8386 men and women who could be tracked until 2022, and 10 people who were born around the same time were selected as judges to evaluate their attractiveness by looking at their graduation photos. As a result, people who were evaluated for their unattractive looks in graduation photos had a shorter life expectancy. When categorized into grades 1 to 6 based on attractiveness, those in the lowest grade 6 had a 16.8 percent higher mortality rate than those in grades 1 to 4. The difference was particularly large for women, and women in the grade 6 of attractiveness died about two years earlier than other women. For men, the gap was about one year. However, having more attractive looks does not mean having a longer life expectancy. No significant difference was found in life expectancy between those who rated as most attractive and those in the middle grades in graduation photos. Sheahan said, “I was surprised that while very attractive people benefit a lot from income, grades, and marriage, this is not the case when it comes to life expectancy.” Sheahan added, “The findings seem to reflect the disproportionate social pressures and judgments that women have to endure about their appearance. The study calls for a wider range of efforts to address unconscious bias in fields ranging from healthcare to education and employment. We need a fair social structure that is independent of the level of attractiveness of people.”
SOPHIA KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
