Do attractive people get better treatment?

There have been studies based on this, short answer: Yes.

duh

It’s my opinion that yes, we do.

Yep. It’s documented.

I sited several studies in an answer to a similar question here

Yes. They do.

I don’t know; the attractive girl in the office is usually treated like dirt by the other girls. Also, men are often intimidated by a very attractive girl. It’s easier to talk your way out of a traffic ticket, and you can usually sweet-talk security into giving you a better seat at a concert, but overall, being pretty is a mixed bag.

@skaggfacemutt….Indeed I’ve also heard that being wealthy is pretty sucky too.

When I was fat I was invisible. People acted like I wasn’t there. When I hit middle age I lost weight, got a “mommy make-over” (tummy tuck and boob lift) and got veneers on my teeth. People treat me so differently now! People actually want to hear what I have to say in real life, not just on the Internet. It makes me sort of sick sometimes because I am the same person and my words were just as valuable then as they are now. The world is not fair.
We were doing research thinking about opening a nightclub. My friend and I walked up to the line of a new night club and the guard called us over and let us walk right in. When our husbands caught up with us they wouldn’t let them in without standing in line and paying a cover. When they said they were with us the guy said ‘Yeah, right.“May not have been fair, but that time it was sweet! Especially since I was 45 at the time!

Blondesjon, I get your point. I would still rather be pretty and have the other girls treat me like crap than be ugly and have them want me around because I make them look good by comparison. I would also rather be wealthy and have the dilemma of not knowing what to buy next than be poor.

People who are considered “attractive” can generally choose to be less attractive pretty easily, if they are getting annoyed with the treatment they are getting, and the option occurs to them.

Many people haven’t noticed though how much of this interaction is actually in the way the perceived person is being. Attractiveness has more to do with how a person is being, than with their body or grooming, though there are of course many social stigmas, common views, fashions and industrial messages about what is supposed to be attractive, that are encoded more as things such as “be young, thin, tan, muscular, behave conventionally, have expensive spotless clothes, use our products…”.

Edit “sited”—->“cited”

Being beautiful confers a survival advantage. The behavior of others is a subconscious acknowledgement of this theory.

Yes.

@Zaku
‘Many people haven’t noticed though how much of this interaction is actually in the way the perceived person is being. Attractiveness has more to do with how a person is being, than with their body or grooming,’

I’d say that’s pretty true, as body language has a lot to do with attraction. Relevant to what Judi was saying, perhaps if someone feels unattractive, they’ll fail to be outgoing in their body language, thus detracting attention from themselves unintentionally.

Naw, out primitive minds (where these decisions are made) were were out to lunch when the memo about plastic surgery and Jenny Craig was sent around.

I think they do for the most part, but there’s definitely a downside, too. I’ve met people who think I must be an idiot, simply because I’m attractive. They assume that I’ve used my looks to get by in life, which is bullshit. In numerous situations I’ve had people talk down to me, even if they’re willing to talk to me, as if they’re talking to a five-year-old. It’s infuriating.

Dreamer;
With women that may be true, but I have met men who have achieved high places in their jobs who look good in a suit but are dumber than a box of rocks. I think men have a double advantage in the work place when they are attractive. The assumption is that they are smarter.

@Judi Yeah, you’re absolutely right – there’s definitely a double-standard for men and women.

thanks for the answers. It confirms my theory. Us poor unattractive types will continue to find ourselves left out in the cold while the pretty types get all the bonus points. But hey, that’s okay, it’s like my wild game hunting buddy/butcher said, “the unattractive deer taste just as good as the purty ones!” :-)

It is certainly true that we give preferential treatment to people who are attractive. I was just listning yesterday on the radio to an interview with Joan Rivers talking about her new book extolling the advantages of plastic surgery. She went so far as to say that she owes the longevity of her career to plastic surgery.

However, when you get to know someone on a personal level, it is hard to distinguish appearance from personality. There are people I have met who I originally judged to be unattractive but no longer felt that way after getting to know them. This leads to another thing to consider, which would be the value of an extroverted personality.

Unfortunatly, yes.

Not always. Physical attractiveness can be destroyed by a poisoned personality just as a creepy countenance can be ignored when paired with charisma.

I guess I’ve observed this phenomenon enough to feel bad for people who are both ugly and stupid. :-|