Lookism is the prejudice or discrimination toward people who are considered to be physically unattractive, and can include basing one's judgment of another person's other qualities, such as intelligence and abilities, on a person's physical appearance. It occurs in a variety of settings, including dating, social environments, and workplaces. Lookism has received less cultural attention than other forms of discrimination (such as racism and sexism) and typically does not have the legal protections that other forms often have, but it is still widespread and can significantly affect people's opportunities in terms of romantic relationships, job opportunities, and other realms of life. The same concept from the opposite angle is sometimes named pretty privilege.
Physical attractiveness is associated with positive qualities; in contrast, physical unattractiveness is associated with negative qualities. Many people make judgments of others based on their physical appearance, which influences how they respond to these people. Research on the "what is beautiful is good" stereotype shows that, overall, those who are physically attractive benefit from their good looks: physically attractive individuals are perceived moderately more positively and physical attractiveness has a moderate influence on judgement of a person's competence.
Lexicology Although the term "lookism" was coined relatively recently, cultures and traditions around the world have long warned against placing too much importance on physical appearance.
To judge by appearances is to get entangled in the Veil of Maya [in Buddhist thought] ... From ancient times until relatively recently, there was widespread worry about lookism, because the appearance of others may deceive, especially in romance, or it may be personally or politically imprudent to judge or act on appearances. Judging by appearances was prohibited by monotheistic religions ("no graven images") and criticized in ancient and medieval philosophies. Skeptics, Stoics, Cynics, Epicureans and Scholastics elaborated various reasons to avoid or subordinate the role of appearances.
The term lookism grew in popularity in the 1970s within the fat acceptance movement. It was used in The Washington Post in 1978, which asserted that the term was coined by fat people who created the word to refer to "discrimination based on looks."John Ayto, 20th Century Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. The word appears in several major English language dictionaries.Bartleby.com — "Lookism ". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. There is some overlap between the terms fatphobia, teratophobia, cacophobia, racism and lookism.Scherer, Bee. "Buddhism and disability: toward a socially engaged Buddhist 'theology' of bodily inclusiveness". Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Universities (JIABU) 9.1 (2017): 26–35.
In the 1990s, the term lookism was used by Smith College to warn incoming students of "lookism, a form of oppression, that involves putting too much stock in personal appearance."
Empirical support According to Nancy Etcoff, a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, "we face a world where lookism is one of the most pervasive but denied prejudices".William Safire. "The Way We Live Now: 8-27-00: On Language; Lookism", New York Times Magazine, August 27, 2000. Referring to several studies, Angela Stalcup writes: "The evidence clearly indicates that not only is there a premium for prettiness in Western culture, there is also a penalty for plainness."Angela Stalcup. The Plainness Penalty: Lookism in Western Culture. When discrimination on the grounds of a person's appearance turns into fear or conveyed aversion, it is referred to as cacophobia. Sometimes cacophobia may be internalized and thus directed inwards rather than towards others.
Studies on newborns have found that human infants as young as 14 hours from birth prefer to look at attractive faces rather than unattractive faces.New Scientist, Babies prefer to gaze upon beautiful faces The preference also extends to non-human animals such as cats. These findings indicate that lookism is an innate product of how the human visual system functions.American Psychological Association, Pretty faces: Easy on the brain?
Research by Dan Ariely found that American women exhibit a marked preference for dating taller men and that for shorter men to be judged attractive by women, they must earn substantially more money than taller men."Ariely found that a 5'4" man would need to make $229,000 more than a 6' man to have equal appeal; a 5'6" man would need $183,000 more; a 5'10" man would need $32,000 more." Lori Gottlieb (2010). Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough. Penguin, p. 239 Some research has suggested that the "beauty premium" for a job largely depends on whether or not attractiveness could potentially enhance productivity, such as those jobs which require substantial interpersonal interaction, while jobs that do not demand this see minimal or no beauty premium.Stinebrickner, Ralph, Todd Stinebrickner, and Paul Sullivan. "Beauty, job tasks, and wages: A new conclusion about employer taste-based discrimination." Review of Economics and Statistics 101, no. 4 (2019): 602-615.
A study found that attractiveness in males correlated with more short-term (not long-term) partners, while in females it correlated with more long-term (not short-term) partners.
Men show a strong preference for physical attractiveness over intelligence when choosing a mate, as shown in a study conducted over data from a speed dating experiment.Karbowski, A., Deja, D., & Zawisza, M. (2016). Perceived female intelligence as economic bad in partner choice. Personality and Individual Differences, 102, 217–222. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.07.006 In a study with 4,573 adult participants it was shown that physical attractiveness is the most valued quality in women, even when considered outside of the context of mate selection.
Research indicates that more attractive individuals are at greater risk of being a victim of crime due to being involved in more social interaction, increasing their risk of exposure. Greater physical attractiveness can also lead individuals to be at greater risk of sexual abuse, regardless of gender.
Some writers have examined this phenomenon among gay men. According to Todd Morrison, author Michelangelo Signorile (in a 1997 overview of contemporary trends in the gay male community) described "body fascism" asthe setting of a rigid set of standards of physical beauty that pressures everyone within a particular group to conform to them. Any person who doesn't meet those very specific standards is deemed physically unattractive and sexually undesirable. In a culture in which the physical body is held in such high esteem and given such power, body fascism then not only deems those who don't or can't conform to be sexually less desirable, but in the extreme – sometimes dubbed "looksism" – also deems an individual completely worthless as a person, based solely on his exterior. In this sense it is not unlike racism or sexism or homophobia itself. ... (p. 28)Morrison, Todd Eclectic Views on Gay Male Pornography: Pornucopia, Volume 47, Psychology Press, An October 2020 paper from University of Memphis examined the effects of instructors' attractiveness on student evaluations of their teaching.
A 2021 study on the effects of the wearing of facemasks in the hospitality industry corroborated existing findings on the correlation between perceived physical attractiveness of frontline workers and customer satisfaction. The study found that the wearing of facemasks by hospitality employees minimized the effects of their actual attractiveness on reported customer satisfaction, leveling off the playing field between average-looking employees and attractive-looking employees.
A 2023 study found that attractive victims of intimate partner violence are viewed as being more credible compared to less attractive victims.
In dating
In politics Lookism has been an issue in politics for centuries, with a long tradition in the United Kingdom of "mercilessly exaggerat[ing]" the physical flaws of politicians in newspaper cartoons.Jones, Johnathan (2012). "Can you be too ugly for politics?", The Guardian 10 January 2012; accessed 19 October 2013 In the 1960 US Presidential race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, it was often believed that Kennedy's more conventionally handsome appearance contributed to his winning more approval in their first televised debate, but some researchers have challenged this widespread idea and argued that Kennedy's appearance had little or no influence. More broadly, research in countries such as Germany, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom has found that more attractive candidates benefit from their appearance by getting more votes in elections, and by being more often forgiven for scandals. In terms of vote choice, at least, the effect of lookism is not even across all contexts. Rather, it appears to primarily matter in cases where voters have low-information elections where voters may have little other to base their vote on (such as non-partisan elections with little media coverage), first-past-the-post elections where voters chose a single candidate, and in elections that are candidate-centered within a weak party system.
There are several variables that might contribute to the objectification of masculinity and femininity in politics. Scholar Charlotte Hooper argued that "gender intersects with other social divisions such as class, race and sexuality to produce complex hierarchies of (gendered) identities". Hooper argues that institutional practices, such as military combat in war, have greatly defined what it means to be a man. Furthermore, the symbolic dimension, which includes sports, media, current affairs, etc. has "disseminate[d] a wealth of popular iconography which links Western masculinities to the wider world beyond the borders of the state". This is where the ideology of lookism is firmly entrenched according to Hooper. Similarly, Laura Shepherd suggests that men are required to fit into the "matrix of intelligibility" by acting a certain way, dressing a certain way, and have a mentality that is devoid of emotion or anything effeminate; if they are successful in becoming the ultimate "man's man" then they are virtually untouchable. However, others have suggested that there is only an explicit interest in the analysis of masculinity within this political sphere, it will be impossible to develop a reliable analysis of femininity within this same sphere.