Do beautiful people have an easier time getting jobs and generally succeeding in life than uglier people? Dr. Hamermesh of the University of Texas found that in the United States, ugly people earn less than average incomes, with an ugliness penalty for men at negative nine percent, and the beauty premium at plus five percent. For women, the effects are somewhat less. Although there are many other studies linking good looks with success, and these are obviously not conclusive, there seems to be a pretty strong correlation between the two. So does that mean that ugly people are discriminated against? If so, that would kind of suck for some people.
I really think that this is true, that people generally think beautiful people are somehow simply better than ugly ones. I mean, if you truly are good enough, then perhaps beauty will not matter (read: Condoleeza Rice), but good looks really should not determine anything. This is just another example of inherent biases in humans that need to be suppressed by society.
But that makes me think about Dennis Kucinich, who has the supermodel wife. Maybe if he had sold her more to the American public he would still be in the running.
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Unfortunately, I think that physical beauty is all too important today. Perhaps this will change as our society becomes increasingly merit based (or so we like to think), but as long as there are face to face interviews, I suspect that there's always going to be a slight bias in favor of the better looking among us.