A kindergarten already privileged children are beautiful. Teachers have a better opinion of them, give them more attention, evaluate them more warmly – in Models of the body and aesthetic psychology of Jean Maisonneuve and Marilou Bruchon Schweitzer (PUF, 1981). This creates a good confidence in children who will accompany all his life. Especially as it will set up a dynamic of success that will continue into adulthood. Then, in college and high school, a note may vary from 20 to 40% depending on the beauty of the student. Studies show that a student ugly but good is not disadvantaged in comparison with a beautiful student of the same level. However, if the prettiest is bad student, his grades will be significantly overestimated by the examiners, explained Jean Maisonneuve and Marilou Bruchon Schweitzer in The Body and the Beauty (PUF, 1999).
“Much more beautiful than the child, the child is ugly held responsible for his failure in school as much as his faults, says Jean-François Amadieu. First by teachers and by teachers and finally by recruiters. Beauty is a status that is degree: it enriches, as ugliness alter our skills. ”
The head of employment
Graduation, you thought being delivered from the tyranny of appearances? Error. “A comely appearance is crucial when hiring, but also for successful integration within the company, explains Jean-François Amadieu. It allows a better evaluation of performance and promotes a good career. “The candidate will be judged primarily on external criteria: care taken in person, weight, physical beauty, etc.. 50% of employers believe that physical attractiveness is an important criterion for recruitment ( Study of Urban Inequality Multicity H. Holzer, Michigan State University, 1993). The negative criteria: excessive weight, small size, long nose, large ears, face ugly, sweaty palms …
“The beautiful are considered more intelligent, more ambitious, warmer, more sociable, more balanced and less aggressive,” says sociologist yet. Thus, many recruitment specialists believe, consciously or not, a balanced personality shows. Worse, studies show that an equivalent degree in physics unprepossessing candidate will be hired for less pay. A situation that will not go in being absorbed: a British study, conducted on eleven thousand UK employees ( Beauty, Statute and the Labour Market by B. Harper, 2000), proves that if the finest earn slightly more than average National ugliest receive salaries of from 11 to 15% lower.
“The beauty not only to escape unemployment, but it becomes more wage premium, says Jean-François Amadieu. Beauty is a human capital as the labor market recognizes financially. “As demonstrated, we impose the dictatorship of the appearances, as media and social tyranny that we suffer, we appear in what they fundamentally unfair. “Of course we would prefer that this be the merits of each that determine graduation, access to jobs, etc.., Rather than an arbitrary criterion and primitive, admits Jean-Francois Amadieu. But it is telling the truth about the discrimination that we can develop strategies to mitigate, if not counter, the influence of appearances. Well known and used by all, it can also help shake up the order imposed. ”
Fine and good
U.S. researchers ( Physical Attractivities and Evaluation of Children’s Transgressions of KK Dion, 1972) asked adults to judge children 7 years accused of wounding a comrade with a snowball. Initially, the respondents were much more tolerant of the most beautiful children: the fault was judged slightly more attractive when the fault was. In a second step, they strongly believed that children récidiveraient less beautiful than others. Comments by sociologist Jean-Francois Amadieu: “Not only the” ugly “is considered more responsible for his fault that the” beautiful “, but in addition, this fault appears as enshrined in its very nature, it is likely to be repeated .





