Study Says Attractive People Get Paid More

According to a study from the University of Illinois at Chicago, people who are perceived as more attractive in high school also tend to get better grades, are more likely to graduate from college and become successful later in life.

According to a study from the University of Illinois at Chicago, people who are perceived as more attractive in high school also tend to get better grades, are more likely to graduate from college and become successful later in life.

The findings combined with previous research, show that these people also earn more money, compared with below average looking people who reportedly earn lower wages.

The long term research involving high school students asked subjects to rate how attractive they thought the student was, and this data was later compared with other information like their grades and whether or not they graduated from college.

The downside to this study showed that the attractive students not only got better grades, but they also drank more alcohol and had a greater number of sexual partners than less attractive participants.

The research was conducted at one high school with federal government funding focused on the study of youth.

Co-author of the study and sociology professor Rachel Gordon says that preferential treatment given to more attractive people at a young age might cause a "kind of snowballing effect across time," contributing to a social problem known as lookism, where more attractive people are given a slight advantage.