The Disadvantages Of Being A Pretty Woman

1. Less likely to be hired (sometimes)

Although beauty can help in the search for a job, it's not always true. When employers are making a decision about someone of the same sex, they can let their jealousy get the better of them.

One recent study has suggested that people who are highly attractive are at a disadvantage in the hiring process when the decision-makers are the same sex. It seems we perceive beautiful people who are the same sex as a threat.

2. Beauty is beastly

Similarly there's evidence that female beauty can be a problem in jobs with strong gender stereotypes. For example a beautiful woman may be at a disadvantage when applying for a job which is associated with masculinity, like a prison guard or a mechanical engineer.

The same doesn't seem to be true for attractive men. They can happily apply for jobs as nurses, lingerie salespersons or HR managers without their beauty counting against them.

3. Perceived to be less talented

The halo effect tells us that when we judge more attractive members of the opposite sex, we generally assume they're more talented than those who are less attractive. This happens even though what they do or say is no cleverer than less attractive people.

But this changes when it's members of the same sex. In a study by highly attractive people of the same sex were judged as less talented than average-looking people.

4. Lucky to be pretty

If beautiful people are successful, is it because of their talent, or is it just their looks? After all, people are lucky to be beautiful and we know all the advantages of that.

Research finds that when judging their own sex, people are more likely to think beautiful people's success is down to their beauty, not their talent. So you're lucky to be pretty, but probably just rely on that rather than talent.

5. Social rejection

Although attractive people are generally more popular socially, there's some evidence that very attractive people can experience social rejection from members of their own sex.

People in relationships also protect themselves from beauty by ignoring it. Research shows that when we're thinking about love we automatically ignore attractive members of the opposite sex, probably to protect our feelings about our long-term partner.

Gender and jealousy

Most of the research has been done on heterosexuals but it's possible similar biases operate for gay people. For both gay and straight, the extent of the biases probably depends on how attractive you are (or at least how attractive you perceive yourself to be). People who are themselves attractive probably don't feel as defensive around other attractive people, so the biases are likely to be weaker for them.

Although we all know about the benefits of being beautiful, it's easy to forget the pitfalls. This psychological research is a reminder that beauty can be threatening. It can threaten our relationships, our work and our image of ourselves. We admire it and defer to it, but sometimes we have to defend ourselves against it.