Politicians on the Right are generally more physically attractive than politicians on the Left. One suggested explanation is that politically Right-leaning people are generally more attractive, another that the selection of electoral candidates is, on the Right, more dependent on candidate attractiveness. To assess these two explanations, the attractiveness of Right- and Left-leaning scholars, identified by authorship to prominent ideologically toned intellectual magazines, was compared. In contrast to politicians, scholars would generally not be expected to benefit much from physical attractiveness, nor would the effects of attraction on selection into a scholarly career be expected to differ depending on political ideology. Perceived political orientation of the scholars was an accurate predictor of magazine political orientation, but physical attractiveness was not. Controlling for grooming – better groomed scholars were more likely to appear in Right-leaning journals – more physically attractive scholars were more likely appear in Left-leaning journals. The results suggest that the reason that politicians on the Right are physically more attractive than politicians on the Left is that the selection of electoral candidates is, on the political Right, more dependent on candidate attractiveness, not that ideologically Right-leaning people generally look better.