How long has it been since you opened your yearbook? It may be hard to believe, but your school photos can tell you a lot about your likely life expectancy. The authors of a new study found that there is a direct relationship between the attractiveness of people in their youth and how many years they will live. The results of the work published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, showed that the least attractive people in high school yearbook photographs tend to live shorter lives than their more attractive classmates. In particular, higher mortality rates were observed among those whom others considered the most unattractive. No matter how contradictory and speculative the scientists' conclusions may sound, the work is based on documented observations that various social conditions, such as income, marital status and education, significantly affect health and life expectancy. We'll tell you the details!
Is it true that beautiful people live longer? And what does a school photo album have to do with it? Image: sp-ao.shortpixel.ai
Contents
- 1 External attractiveness
- 2 Beauty and life expectancy
- 3 How to determine attractiveness?
- 4 Limitations
External attractiveness
The fact that modern society is obsessed with appearance is hardly surprising. However, there are very specific reasons for this phenomenon. Thus, the results of previous studies have shown that although physical attractiveness is superficial by definition, it provides undeniable advantages in the personal, social and professional spheres and generally has a significant impact on various aspects of a person's life.
The findings, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, found that attractive people are more likely to feel confident, which can have benefits in many areas of life. For example, they are more likely to try new things and get promoted.
Being attractive gives people many advantages. Image: images.theconversation.com
Moreover, those who are considered attractive are often perceived positively by others – this phenomenon is called the “halo effect”. Essentially, it is a psychological bias that makes people assume that physically attractive people also have other positive qualities, such as intelligence, kindness and competence.
More on the topic: How does physical attractiveness affect relationships in a team?
There is also some evidence that attractive people are healthier. However, this may also be because certain indicators of good health, such as body mass index (BMI), can influence how others perceive attractiveness.
Beauty and Longevity
Despite the considerable body of research documenting the privileges of beautiful people, the role of physical attractiveness in determining longevity has been virtually ignored. This oversight is noteworthy because attractiveness can reveal a lot about health. Although similar studies have been conducted in the past, the results have been mixed. Moreover, such studies often did not take into account various life-cycle factors and demographic characteristics.
Now the authors of the new study decided to dot all the i’s and use a largelongitudinal data set— a type of study in which data is collected from the same participants over a long period of time, sometimes even over many years or decades—namely, the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS)—to provide more robust analysis.
Scientists were able to determine the link between attractiveness and life expectancy thanks to the WLS. Image: www.nia.nih.gov
Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS)– a database for searching for the genetic component of external attractiveness. The study began in 1957, and its participants were several thousand college graduates (of European descent) who gave DNA samples.
Want to always be up to date with the latest news from the world of science and high technology? Subscribe to our channel in Telegram – so you will definitely not miss anything interesting!
In their work, scientists from the University of Arizona estimated the impact of physical attractiveness on life expectancy by combining mortality data from the US National Death Index (through 2022) and data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS). In this way, they were able to follow the lives of 8,386 Wisconsin high school students who graduated in 1957 until they died or reached age 80. Almost 43% of the people in the sample had died by the end of the observation period.
“I've always thought that attractiveness is an understudied aspect of social inequality. Beauty may not be as structural as other aspects, but everyone knows it's important. I also met and shared this idea with one of the leading experts, Dr. Hamermesh, who has spent decades studying how a person's appearance affects their life course,” says study co-author Connor M. Sheehan of the University of Arizona.
Appearance matters even in matters such as life expectancy. Image: media.licdn.com
The results showed that graduates who were considered the least attractive had a 16.8% higher risk of premature death compared to those whose attractiveness was average. In particular, 20-year-old women in the least attractive group lived almost two years less, while men lived almost a year less compared to their more attractive peers.
This is interesting: Beauty propaganda: what do scientists think about the desire to change your body?
How to determine attractiveness?
To rate the attractiveness of all WLS participants, the researchers used high school yearbook photos and independent judges rated their beauty: each respondent was rated on an eleven-point scale by six men and six women who were trained to give consistent and valid ratings. All participants in this “beauty contest” were then divided into six different categories, from most attractive to least attractive.
To identify the relationship between attractiveness and life expectancy, as discussed above, the authors used mortality data from the US National Death Index, as well as proportional hazard models and life expectancy calculation methods.
Life expectancy can be predicted from school photos. Image: cdn.zmescience.com
These models took into account a variety of factors, including school performance, intelligence, marital status, income in adulthood, and mental and physical health in adulthood. By combining all available data sets, the authors of the work were able to identify the specific impact of attractiveness on life expectancy.
Don’t miss: It turned out that unattractive people overestimate their appearance
The results of the study showed that people who were rated as the least attractive by independent judges had a significantly higher risk of dying early compared to people of average attractiveness. Interestingly, the study found no significant difference in the risk of dying early between attractive people and people of average attractiveness.
These findings suggest that while unattractiveness is associated with a shorter lifespan, high attractiveness does not confer any additional longevity benefitscompared to the average appearance. This pattern was the same at different stages of life, which confirms the reliability of the obtained results.
External attractiveness does not guarantee longevity. Image: nypost.com
People who were rated as the least attractive based on their yearbook photos lived shorter lives than their more attractive classmates. Moreover, we found no real advantage for the most attractive people over everyone else. These results do highlight the need for fairer treatment of people regardless of their appearance, the study authors write.
The team also found a correlation between attractiveness and income. Interestingly, this factor plays out in dating and marriage. For example, previous studies have shown that women who are considered less attractive tend to marry men who earn less and who are less educated.
You might be interested in: How does a name affect a person's appearance?
Limitations
Despite the comprehensive nature of the new study, it has limitations. One is the sample itself, which only included Wisconsin high school graduates, which may not be entirely representative of the overall U.S. population. Another limitation is the potential for variability in photo quality and other unmeasured factors (such as childhood health) that could influence attractiveness ratings and subsequent mortality risks.
Of course, the data in this groundbreaking study is not sufficient to prove a direct cause-and-effect relationship, and it is focused on a single geographic area. Still, it's an interesting set of results when it comes to public health concerns. “Sociologists should study how attractiveness may influence other aspects of life that may contribute to its relationship with health and longevity,” the authors of the study note.
Attractiveness May Be a Sign of Underlying Health. Image: static.vecteezy.com
Do you know which social media site is the worst for your mental health and why? The answer is here, highly recommended!
In the future, the study authors plan to further explore the relationship they found between longevity and attractiveness using larger samples across the United States. «It would also be useful to examine the specific ways in which unattractiveness may lead to an increased risk of premature death and the stressors that less attractive people face.