Physical Appearance: How it Affect us in our lives

By: Kadija Chenekan

When we look back to History there are many mentions of how appearance plays an important role in our life. We as a people tend to be more acceptable of other people who look a certain way. Human beings appreciate beauty, we love what is beautiful and tend to be judgmental or critical about unattractive things, be they people or objects. In our Society today, physical attributes tend to be more important than other attributes that makes the character of a person. In the articles Beware of the Halo and Horns Effects by Nagesh Belludi, Beautiful Women Face Discrimination in Certain Jobs, and Why looks are the last bastion of discrimination by Deborah L. Rhode, The authors discuss how physical appearance affect people today in life. In our lives today, people are judged more favorably if they are physically attractive, they tend to be accepted faster than an unattractive person and they are appreciatively looked upon when in a competition for a job, or any other situation. In the article Beware of the Halo and Horns Effects by Nagesh Belludi, he argues that people base their judgment on how a person looks physically and what they perceive to be true of that person. One reason why Belludi believes this is because of a study done by Professor Emily Pronin of Princeton University. This study shows how Participants chose to invest more money in a candidate that was dressed in a suit and has a degree from Cornell University rather than the same candidate dressed in casual clothing but with a degree from a nondescript college. According to Belludi this is because of the Halo and Devil effect. The Halo effect is the concept by which a person who is judged positively on one aspect is automatically judged positively on several other aspects without much evidence. For example, Charismatic people tend to move up faster the corporate ladder regardless of their skills and experience. This shows

that despite the fact that some people may be more qualified for the job, they are overlooked because of their unattractive physical appearance. In the Article Beautiful Women face Discrimination in Certain Jobs published in the Science Daily we learn that sometimes attractive physical attributes is detrimental to women in certain jobs. This pertains to Women who are in a male dominated career. According to a study by Stephanie Johnson an assistant professor of Management at UC Denver Business School, Attractive women were discriminated against when applying for jobs considered "masculine" and for which appearance was not seen as important to the job. Despite this rare occurrence, physical appearance is always considered first. On the other hand the Devil Effect is the concept by which a person who is judged negatively on one aspect is automatically judged negatively on several other aspects without much evidence. An example of this is the battle of perception that American car manufactures has had to deal with. People perceive Japanese cars to be better despite the fact that they use identical components from the same suppliers and assemble their cars using identical manufacturing processes. The concept of the devil effect is emphasized in the Article Beautiful Women face Discrimination in Certain Jobs where Women are judged as incompetent for male oriented jobs because of their attractive appearance. Throughout his article, Belludi emphasizes the importance of appearance, how perception especially the perception of physical appearance, or outgoing personality, or the impression with which people see us plays an important role in our lives. The idea that people are susceptible to the physical aspects of a person is much more prevalent. People judge and have been known to distinguish individuals who are more attractive against those who are not.

In the article Why looks are the last bastion of discrimination by Deborah Rhode, Rhode shows us how people are being discriminated against because of their appearance, how they look physically instead of their ability to do their jobs. An example of this is in 2001, Jennifer Portnick, a 240-pound aerobics instructor, was denied a franchise by Jazzercise, a national fitness chain because Jazzercises image demanded instructors who are "fit" and "toned." But Portnick was both: She worked out six days a week, taught back-to-back classes and had no shortage of willing students. This stresses the importance of physical attractiveness in our society today and how this was illustrated in the article written by Belludi. Another Example of how Physical attractiveness is important is a study done by Stephen Ceci and Justin Gunnell at Cornell University. In the study these two researchers gave students case studies involving real criminal defendants and asked them to come to a verdict and a punishment for each. The students gave unattractive defendants prison sentences that were; on average, 22 months longer than those they gave to attractive defendants. This shows that people put a lot of emphasis on physical attractiveness and how it affect us daily in whatever situation we may find ourselves. When I was in High School, there was an internship available at the American Insurance Group (AIG). I was told about it at the last minute. It was the day of the deadline, and I had to be interviewed but I wasnt dressed appropriately. I told my teacher that I was not dressed properly and he called the interviewer and told him. I was told to come in anyway. I was really apprehensive and concerned because of my physical appearance. I put on some make up and went to the interview. I went in wearing jeans, but I put on a friendly face, smiling, and I was engaging, and the interviewer told me that he was not expecting me. He said he had formed a negative view of me because of the clothes that I was wearing but that because of my outgoing

personality he would give me a chance but next time to come dresses appropriately because looks do matter. Ever since then, I realized that physical appearance is important in our lives and the difference between getting what we want could be how we are dressed. Belludis example demonstrated that casual clothing can be a negative factor when we are in certain situations. The three Articles by Belludi, Rhode and the Science News all show how appearance is important. It is an unconscious decision that makes people seek out to attribute positive connotations to people with attractive physical appearance. All these three articles emphasize the importance of Physical attractiveness in workplace, courts and many other places. We find that people who are attractive are favorably looked upon whereas people who are unattractive are at a disadvantage. Despite the fact that Physical Appearance does not automatically equate to qualification or experience, we are judged by how we look. It is an unfortunate aspect of our society. We are being discriminated based on how we look and there are no laws that prevent this and according to Rhode, it would be impossible to make laws because physical attractiveness is not a set quality that can be defined like gender or race. Since physical appearance is one thing we are judged upon, it is better to project an image of attractiveness no matter what.