The Physical Appearance and Life Path - Thesis Example

?Does one's physical appearance play a major role in deciding his/her life Introduction The physical appearance of a person does play a noticeably important role in deciding his/her life. As once rightly quoted by Niccolo Machiavelli “Men in general judge more from appearances than from reality. All men have eyes, but few have the gift of penetration” (Machiavelli). This paper will reassert the same with the help of a journey through each stage of human life (from childhood to old-age) and observing how a person’s physical appearance always plays a major role in deciding his/her life. It will be argued that those who appear better always do relatively better in their lives – keeping all other factors aside. It will further be contended that people who are physically more attractive tend to get more opportunities in their lifetime as compared to their colleagues with unattractive personalities. Moreover, the idea that people with more attractive physical appearances comparatively achieve more in their lives, will be put forward with the help of observation of each and every stage of a human life. ‘Physical appearance’, for the purpose of this paper must not be misinterpreted as ‘beauty’, as the idea of beauty as mere physical appearance is subjective. The physical appearance indicated throughout this paper will relate to only physical attractiveness which may find its roots in different characteristics of a person like his/her intelligence, approach, personality, richness, way of communication and/or prettiness etc. The paper proposes that even though a person’s physical attractiveness may not usually determine his/her working capacity, it is a recurring phenomenon that a person’s physical appearance affects other people’s perception of him thus giving rise to unequal distribution of opportunities amongst the working class based on their physical attractiveness (Loh). “A person’s physical attractiveness level has been revealed by numerous investigations to be an extraordinarily important psychological variable, for it has accounted for a statistically significant proportion of the variance in almost all situations in which it has been investigated and almost for all dependent measures which have been constructed to show its effects” (Jackson) It is further proposed that the phrase ‘deciding his/her life’ refers to one’s eventual success in life through different stages that every human has to live e.g. childhood, teenage, young adulthood, adulthood and finally old-age. It does not mean that one’s personal life decisions are based upon his physical appearance, however, it refers to the idea that other’s decision with respect to him/her will definitely depend upon his/her physical appearance. The human society revolves around interdependence and notions of social contract (Hampton) which require social interaction and such social interaction is undoubtedly influenced largely by each individual’s physical appearances. Throughout the paper, the main focus will be upon the influence of physical appearance in the social interactions (reflections and perceptions) in different frameworks of various institutions that one happens to come across in his entire life-time. “Democratic or not, physical attractiveness has an important influence in almost every realm of behavior in which its effects have been studied” (Jackson). Through following three subdivided stages of one’s life, this paper will discuss above mentioned contentions in the light of physical attractiveness – (a) Childhood (Kindergarten), (b) Teenage and young adulthood (Middle & High School), (c) Adulthood & Old-age (Job market and Retired life). 2. Effect of Physical Appearance in one’s Childhood life: The birth of a child is known to have been the most beautiful gift of nature. But is this beauty enough to blossom that child as beautifully as others who were born at the same time as him? The most logical answer that follows is – no. There will always be an unequal distribution of resources amongst human kind and the authority of such contention lies in the theory of evolution. Every child is born in the same manner, but one grows to become a millionaire whereas the other dies of starvation. There are many factors which determine one’s destiny however physical appearance is one of the major factors that contribute to one’s success in his/her life. “The first step of a child in the real world is when he starts interaction. The ability to think about oneself as an object of perception develops gradually over the first several years of life. During the first year, infants can discriminate their own real-time limb or facial movements from those of others in paired video presentations. This visual – kinesthetic matching and discrimination reflects an early form of self-world differentiation, sometimes referred to as the ‘‘ecological self’’, that serves as the perceptual, sensorimotor, subjective foundation for later developing objective self-awareness and conceptual knowledge of the body… …Reflective self-awareness emerges between 15 and 18 months of age when children begin to match their own facial and/or body movements with the image of them in a mirror, exhibiting mirror self-recognition. This ability is characteristic of nearly all typically developing children by 24 – 26 months of age and is associated with other features of the objective self such as self-reference and self-conscious emotions. Thus, the bodily self of infants, appears to anchor the emergence of objective self-awareness in the second year of life and continues to develop into the self-concept over the preschool years and beyond” (Brownell, Zerwas and Ramani). The next step of a child to proceed towards the unknown real world i.e. out of his house to face strangers and interact with them to be a part of that institution is – kindergarten or play-school. A child’s life begins with his toys, friends, colors etc. However, it is pertinent to note here that not all the kids are able to make friends, get desired toys or liked by the teachers. Every child is not as loved as his fellow kids even though all the kids are special. There are a number of reasons as to why there are a few children who face discrimination as opposed to those who get all the attention, good toys, good friends, good grades and enough love from their teachers. Physical appearance plays a very important role in a kid’s life even though the kid may not be aware of the pros and cons of his appearance to others. A crowd in any public place is always attracted to a cute looking kid with pretty clothes and healthy body. You may never have noticed a number of people cuddling or getting fascinated by a weak, underweight and unattractive child. Precisely why, some children in their kindergarten age often become reluctant to go there everyday whereas some children wholly enjoy being there. The former category of kids consists of ignored kids who are usually unattractive and thus fail to make good friends or even feel unattended by the teachers. Even kindergarten teachers get fascinated by cute-looking and attractive kids and therefore pay more attention to them disregarding the consequent effect on those kids who observe their behavior and feel bad about being discriminated1. The other category of kids, however, always gets the better chance and therefore they get conditioned in such a way that a typical kind of confidence starts building into them. “Self-confidence is also likely to be related to a person’s appearance” (Tao). The next step in that child’s life is the middle school or junior high school where the dating life starts. This is the time when you want a particular person to develop a feeling of attraction towards you. The good-looking, physically attractive children have the benefit of being inherently appealing and therefore they always get their way through their dating career. The targeted person is naturally attracted to them and so it is an easy game for them to play. For example, girls always choose to date better looking, physically charming boys from amongst their peers mainly because this is the age where children learn how to ‘boast’ about themselves and they experiment it. This confidence further compels such attractive kids to maintain their physical traits which usually attract friends, teachers etc. When a good looking kid, who has always had good opportunities due to his/her physical attractiveness, starts growing into an adult, his confidence compensates for his lack of talent (if any) and leads to ultimate success. It is also observed that better looking kids always excel academically mainly because of the teacher bias. “It appears that the social benefits of good looks begin to accumulate quite early. Research on elementary school children shows that adults view aggressive acts as less naughty when performed by an attractive child (Dion) and that teachers presume good-looking children to be more intelligent than their less attractive classmates” (Ritts V) Therefore, it has reasonably been established that the physical attractiveness of a person starts deciding and conditioning his/her life as soon as he/she enters the real world of social interaction and interdependence. This influence of physical attractiveness further reinforces itself as the person deals with other such institutions in his growing academic/professional life. 3. Effects of physical appearance on one’s teenage and young adulthood: Teenage phase is known to be the most difficult age of a person’s childhood life. It is so mainly because this is the age when children grow up and face various physical changes. During this phase, children take their shapes according to their lifestyles, atmosphere, taste etc. This might be the time when certain physically attractive teenagers might lose some of their confidence because teenage involves a variety of problems like pimples, obesity, undergrowth and most importantly puberty. Apparently, “the nerds and the jocks found in U.S. High Schools are differentiated as much by their grooming and dress as by their traits and activities” (Macrae). The teenagers are completely biased and the first impression of another fellow adolescent is particularly important for them in the formation of subsequent impression (Chia, Allred and W.F.Grossnickle). As teenagers see other physically attractive fellow children, they tend to compare themselves with them. It is pertinent to note here that better looking children always seek their teacher’s attention and thus get better chances due to their inherent charm. “Physical attractiveness has shown to be correlated to actual performance, teacher’s expectations of students and teacher’s attributions of student ability” (Chia, Allred and W.F.Grossnickle). For example, if a teacher has to assign some personal work to a child in class, say roll-calling, then she is more likely to pick up better looking children because it is a natural occurrence for her to get attracted towards the good-looking group of the class as human beings generally tend to incline towards physically attractive fellow human beings. Moreover, there are other such factors like physical attractiveness which amount to good academic performance as claimed by the U.S. High School Students. “For more attractive persons, efforts and ability are perceived as the most internal, stable, global, and controllable causes attributed to academic performance, whereas luck is seen as the variable least likely to affect academics” (Hau and Salili). When a physically attractive person gets in the habit of receiving all the attention throughout his/her childhood history, he/she tends to develop an addiction towards such attention and therefore his/her physical appearance becomes more of a trait as compared to an inborn and inherent benefit. It has been established through research that in the absence of any other information people will use physical appearance as the basis for drawing inferences; specifically inferences related to that person’s academic influence, achievement related traits, intelligence and initiative, and attributions of ability and effort (Chia, Allred and W.F.Grossnickle) It is interesting to note here that even if good-looking people are merely average in their intellectual behavior; their achievement related results are better than those with comparatively better intellect but not equally appealing appearance. Moreover, it is a noticeable occurrence in our day to day lives when we see acquaintances judging each other’s children; they mostly drive their attention towards the better-looking teenagers/children. Therefore, the behavioral influence and consequent prejudice with regards to physical attractiveness in a one’s teenage phase of life has thus been established. However, the next step, which is another important stage of a person’s lifespan, is the young adulthood where youngsters usually start getting identified as adults. The reason this is important is because every child while growing, looks up to young adults and gets influenced by them thus longing for his own adulthood to derive. Moreover, teenagers look up to approaching adulthood also because they are prohibited or forbidden from doing or getting engaged in certain things for the basic reason that they are not adults. During this phase, the youngsters are mostly pursuing their college/graduate studies. It is important to note here that the good-looking, physically more attractive crowd of the college tends to get better opportunities in their future career as compared to the average looking crowd. “It is found that the entry wage increases by 3.4% for college graduates who are satisfied with their physical appearance, and by 0.41% for each additional 1% of height. It is also found that graduates who are satisfied with their looks are more likely to be full-time workers and are less likely to be unemployed. Taller college graduates are more likely to go to graduate school, and are less likely to enter the labor market directly after graduating from college” (Tao). Also, it is to be noted that a person’s physical appearance along with his sexual identity, is the personal characteristic that is most obvious and accessible to in social interaction (Dion and Berscheid). Therefore, during college the good looking students tend to appear more impressive than other unattractive looking group especially when the recruiters are short of time and are not able to take thorough interviews. 4. Effects of Physical Appearance on one’s adult life and ahead: The first step that a child takes to enter the real world is when he starts interaction; however, the first step that an adult takes to enter the real world is when he/she enters the job market. There have been innumerous studies showing that one’s professional life is decided majorly by his/her physical appearance or degree of physical attractiveness. The fundamental situation where the observers’ prejudice may be based upon physical appearance or attractiveness is when people apply for job interviews. It is almost certain that every industry requires appealing workers/employees mainly because they attract the customers. In fact, a large body of scholarship suggests that physical attractiveness is strongly associated with higher levels of career success, particularly among young women and also that employers tend to attribute a variety of positive social characteristics to attractive female employees including cooperativeness, intelligence and competence (Glass, Haas and Reither). Gender is another aspect of studying the psychology of people regarding physical appearance. However, for the purpose of this thesis the issue of gender has not been emphasized upon. It is also contented that physically attractive people tend to gather more help as compared to physically unattractive, mainly because of their pleasing appealing physical traits. It is surprisingly amusing to note that mere physical appearance of people can affect the economy in a very direct way. “Research on the global market impacts of physical appearance has focused on its effects on job recommendations from personnel consultants, evaluations of applicant’s resumes, hiring preferences of employees, occupational success, recommended starting salaries, promotion decisions and income. These studies uniformly demonstrate that physical appearance leads to different economic outcomes in the job market. However, it is possible that the expectations of higher productivity placed on attractive individuals are ultimately fulfilled due to preferential treatment and greater opportunities they receive” (Loh). Also, several studies have analyzed the impact of obesity on occupational standing by estimating the influence of body mass on occupational attainment only to find that heavy women receive less post-secondary schooling than their thinner peers, which in turn adversely affected their occupational standing at each point in their careers (Glass, Haas and Reither). This may be related to the similar issue as that of recruiters/employers appointing good-looking workers/employments in the first place. It is important to notice here that good-looking people may not be very sharp but their natural appealing qualities compensate for the lack of any other talent in them. The concept of physical appearance, as made clear in the introductory section of this paper, does not include mere facial appearance but includes other material physical features too. Body mass is one of the primary determinants of evaluations of female attractiveness .Therefore, employers who reward physical attractiveness may be more likely to discriminate against heavy women due to inferences about ability. “Research suggests that employers tend to evaluate larger women as less productive and desirable employees. Specifically, employers tend to see heavy women as lacking in self-discipline and professionalism and as having lower supervisory potential. Additional studies suggest that employers attribute a variety of negative characteristics to heavier women including laziness, mental incompetence and emotional instability review. While the current analysis does not directly measure employer discrimination, we expect to observe a residual direct effect of body mass on occupational standing after controlling for other attainment-related factors” (Glass, Haas and Reither). When a physically attractive person who is in a habit of being chosen, attended and looked up on automatically develops the art of impressing people and win their confidence. As we have journeyed through the life span of a person through his kindergarten to his adult life so far, it will be interesting not note that physically attractive people seldom face discrimination and therefore they have a natural instinct of being at the top in the hierarchy of physical appearance and social perceptions of physical attractiveness. There will be many examples available for such representation of prejudice amongst various professions that are practiced in the contemporary world. In order to exemplify, the best example to provide is that of teachers in any institution. Mostly students tend to attend more classes of better looking professors and also work harder for their subject as compared to other physically unattractive teachers. It is a common phenomenon for people to psychologically get attracted towards better looking people. Precisely why, the students usually do not find it unethical or immoral in any sense to be prejudiced against their own teachers based upon their physical attractiveness levels. There are other such examples of other professions too namely doctors, air hostesses, businessmen, shopkeepers etc. Any or all of these professionals are preferred more over others of the same profession if they are physically more attractive and appealing to their customers. It is a natural instinct to go to a better looking shopkeeper’s store and to travel in a flight with better looking airhostesses. “Voters usually do not know much about the biography and political agenda of the local candidates for parliament in their constituency. Since posters with photographs of these candidates are omnipresent on the streets during the election campaign, many voters are at least familiar with their facial appearance. As a consequence, the attractiveness of the constituency candidates substantially influences voter behavior. This is shown by the example of the North Rhine-Westphalia state election of 2005. Judgments about the attractiveness of the constituency candidates were collected by means of a web survey among members of an online access panel. Respondents were confronted with portrait photographs of local candidates and asked to rate their attractiveness. According to the truth of-consensus method, the attractiveness score of a candidate is computed by averaging across the different ratings he or she has received. The behavior of voters is ultimately captured by the real-life election results in the constituencies” (Ulrich, Markus and Tilo). 5. Conclusion: The paper made an attempt to establish that a physically attractive and appealing person indeed tends to end up being more successful as compared to his/her peers. There were many reasons explained as to why such a probability is likely to prevail in a normal human being’s life. When a child grows up to become a successful physically attractive professional, it is very likely for him to preach his achievement on his children and other future generations. It will be a natural occurrence for him to teach them that being physically attractive naturally leads to towards success and therefore physical appearance should be given as much priority as other attributes of success. However, for the purposes of this paper many assumptions were made which are not very realistic. For example, there are many physically appealing people but due to their financial or locational drawbacks they do not achieve the successful end of life. This paper will not be able to answer as to why they would not achieve such end mainly because the differences in atmospheres and other such factors have been assumed to remain common for all this paper. Although, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder and so it will never be possible to define what physical attractiveness in real world means. Therefore, to achieve a perfect answer to the question ‘Does one’s physical appearance play a major role in deciding his/her life’, one needs to define physical appearance in its best form. Nonetheless, this paper successfully establishes that even if physical appearance may not be the only deciding factor, it plays a very crucial role in one’s entire life and his/her eventual achievement. Works Cited Brownell, Celia A., Stephanie Zerwas and Geetha B. Ramani. "‘‘So Big’’: The Development of Body Self-Awareness in Toddlers." Child Development (2007): 1426-1440. Chia, R.C., et al. "Effects of Attractiveness and Gender on the Perception of Achievement-Related Variables." The Journal of Social Psychology (1998): 471-477. Dion, K K. "Physical attractiveness and evaluation of children's transgressions." 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Stereotypes and stereotyping. USA: The Guilford Press, 1996. Ritts V, Patterson M. L., Tubbs M. E. "Expectations, impressions, and judgments of physically attractive students: A review." Review of Educational Research (1992): 413-426. Tao, Hung-Lin. "Attractive Physical Appearance vs. Good Academic Characteristics: Which Generates More Earnings?" Kyklos: International Review for Social Sciences (2008): 114-133. Ulrich, R., K. Markus and B. Tilo. "The frog pond beauty contest: Physical attractiveness and electoral success of the constituency candidates at the North Rhine-Westphalia state election of 2005." European Journal of Political Research (2008): 64-79. Read More