Do you have to be attractive to get ahead in business?

But according to Dr Gordon Patzer, who’s done three decades of research into the subject, humans are actually hard-wired to respond more favourably to attractive people. "Good-looking men and women are generally regarded to be more talented, kind, honest and intelligent than their less attractive counterparts." Even studies of babies show they’ll look more intently and longer at attractive faces, Dr Patzer notes. And we can’t blame the media’s obsession with perfection for that phenomenon. (Patzer does slightly nail his colours to the mast with the names of his websites, though: www.LooksRule.com and www.Looksinfo.com.)

Elsewhere, a Tufts University study by psychologists Nicholas Rule and Nalini Ambady observed that a random sample of people could rate the competence, dominance, likeability, maturity and trustworthiness just by studying the facial photographs of CEOs. So however inequitable all this seems, there must be something in all this.

Fundamentally, though, I agree with the hypothesis from social psychologist Elliot Anderson, of Stanford University, that it probably all has something to do with ‘positive reinforcement’: a person’s self-perception, boosted by healthy feedback from others, plays a role in success.

Confidence shines out from some people – and confidence is hugely attractive. People who know they look good tend to exude that confidence from every cell of their being. It’s partly why women spend so many gazillion pounds a year on cosmetics, hairdressing and flattering clothes: whether you approve or not, they all contribute to how good we feel about ourselves. Because going back to that gene ‘lottery’: I’m actually a huge believer in the power of a good ‘makeover’; literally anyone can feel more attractive with right make-up and haircut.

I’ve seen women’s confidence levels skyrocket when someone shows them that yes, they really can look that terrific. Shallow? Maybe. But inarguable. (For men, read: good haircut, well-groomed facial hair/ close shave – and hey, maybe a touch of bronzer, when the days are this dismal.)

This bias towards attraction is of course, another form of prejudice and discrimination (which I’m against in every form) – and even if the theorists are spot on, surely we can’t help wishing that people could achieve, in this world, without having to look like they’ve stepped out of the pages of a glossy? That would be nice. (But then again, so would world peace …)

It would be interesting, meanwhile, to follow the fortunes of investors who built their portfolio on the strength of the attractiveness of those bosses, over the period of a year.

Any researchers at the LSE up for that, I wonder …?

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