Beautiful people have a leg up in life. They’re better off financially because they have a better chance of getting hired and making a more generous salary. Since it’s facial symmetry that contributes to beauty and success, those with asymmetrical faces end up losing thousands in income. That’s why many turn to cosmetic tweakments.
The unconscious bias to symmetry is justified by evolutionary forces. Health, fitness, and good genes are associated with facial symmetry. It also skews perception. Such people are considered more intelligent, confident, and extroverted. But that’s old news.
Study results show that attractive people earn 12-17% more than those perceived as less attractive. As we established earlier, symmetry contributes to attractiveness. An average wage earner in the UK would potentially lose income as a result of this lack of symmetry (and hence attractiveness).
The average salary of an employee in the UK is £38,131, according to the Office for National Statistics. However, those who’re considered conventionally “attractive” end up earning £4,575.72 more per year, all thanks to their genetics.
There’s also such a thing known as the halo effect; how you look can greatly affect how you’re perceived. And again, attractive people have an advantage. Being beautiful is positive, so surely everything else is going to be positive about that person. This is a heuristic approach, meaning people take mental shortcuts to make quick decisions, and there’s no undoing that.
Why Do Employers Prefer Attractive Faces?
The research titled “Why Beauty Matters,” published by the American Economic Association (AEA,) answers this question. It outlines 3 main reasons:
- Having physical attractiveness increases employee confidence, which increases their wages.
- Due to their higher level of confidence, employers (wrongly) perceive physically attractive workers as more capable.
- A worker who is physically attractive has better verbal skills (probably due to their confidence which comes from their looks) when engaging with employers, which will increase their salary.
Therefore, in the mind of the employer, hiring an attractive individual would literally pay off.
The Benefits Of Cosmetic Treatments For Facial Symmetry
Cosmetic procedures have become popular among those who feel short-changed by nature. Because there’s a premium on beauty, cosmetic tweakments offer a way to experience the good side of life.
For improving facial symmetry, the most commonly targeted areas are the cheeks, chin, ears, eyes, forehead, jawline, nose, lips, face and neck. And many people choose to get dermal fillers for that. To make your face perfectly symmetrical, you’d need about 2 injections of it a year, which can cost you £1,050.
Obviously, the price will vary depending on the degree of asymmetry and the amount of filler required. A single injection would cost you £525 on average. However, as you’ll be earning £4,575.72 more, you’ll have a higher return on investment, £3,525.72 to be precise.
Once you save up, you can invest in one-time procedures that give permanent results like rhinoplasty or facelift, which costs around £4,000-7,000 and £10,000 in the UK, respectively. Therefore, eventually, you’ll end up making a 100% profit on your investment.
Conclusion
There is scientific evidence that facial symmetry contributes to attractiveness. And that has a positive impact on the personal, social and professional lives of those individuals. However, this reward for beauty is not available to everyone. Those who feel cheated by this bias often turn to cosmetic treatments. People can make far more money from cosmetic treatments than they invest in them, so it certainly makes sense financially.
