I picked Gordon Patzer’s Looks: Why They Matter More Than You Ever Imagined out of my review pile because it struck a nerve with me as a huge cultural issue. In his book, he focuses on “lookism,” as he calls it, from all different angles: in the family, the schools, the beauty industry and TV news. Yet what does it have to do with business?
When it comes to your career, he sums it up in a chapter chock full of studies that conclude that if you are “good-looking” or even “tall,” you have a better chance of landing that job, getting a higher salary over your lifetime and getting promoted more than an average or “PA-challenged” (physically attractive-challenged) colleague. However, if you are good-looking and mess up, you can expect to fall farther and harder. There were also subtleties, in that an attractive woman will have a harder time getting a masculine-oriented job. Yet attractive women are more likely to get a job that involves face-to-face contact with clients, unless it is a woman doing the hiring.
He even has data about how good-looking execs created more income than the cost to their companies of having to pay them higher wages. For the lawyers in the audience, maybe Denny Crane on Boston Legal had a point about hiring only attractive lawyers at Crane, Poole & Schmidt. Patzer reports that they tend to fare better in court.
I’m sure there’s nothing new here for anyone who went to high school. The pretty girls are popular, the handsome athletes get the pretty girls. The rest of us count the minutes until we go to much larger, diverse colleges and universities, and ultimately into the workforce, where brains come a bit more into play. Yet it doesn’t change much even there, according to Patz’s resesarch.
Patzer does cover the dark side of beauty, from plastic surgery to eating disorders. Yet his conclusion to the book is a bit depressing: “Good looks make a difference today and most likely always will.”
I suppose one way to conquer lookism is to have a more diverse point of view as to what constitutes good looks. One wonders why, with our 500 channels on TV and our ability to connect globally over the web, we still have a Ken and Barbie view of beauty. Perhaps if we had a larger variety of what people find attractive, we might be able to spread the looks around more.
Top Shelf Bottom Line: It’s a depressing read, but sometimes we need to read the unpleasant stuff that makes us squirm. As for entrepreneurs? It looks like the beauty or anti-aging industry might be the way to go.
To hear more from Gordon Patzer, listen in to my new blogtalkradio show, Smash the Ladder, with Anita Bruzzese and Diane K. Danielson. Click here to listen to Anita’s interview of Patzer.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 9:44 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.4 Responses to “What’s Looks Got to Do With It?”
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March 6th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Thats a good read.
March 7th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
“Look” is well researched and that’s what makes the truth so ugly. As cosmetic procedures continue to become more affordable it seems that an increasing number of adolescents are altering their looks. It would be interesting to track these patients and observe whether or not they cultivate personalities and compassion. And, as so many members of the next generation opt for cookie cutter features will it level the playing field? Or will discrimination toward the PA challanged an alienated, economic sub-culture?
March 7th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
I do find the “cookie cutter” appearances a bit baffling. I think we’ll see a backlash, though, esp. as foreign markets start to dominate. When you go to Europe, everyone strives to look different and they are all interesting and beautiful in different ways. In fact, they can be stylish without being typically “attractive.”
May 9th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Obagi Blue Peel
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.