Good-looking people also get treated better and therefore feel the world is just and fair, leading to ‘blind spot’ when trying to understand hardships of others

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

It is a finding unlikely to prove popular with Guardian readers, but a study has concluded that attractive people are more likely to be rightwing.

Previous research has found that those who are good-looking are generally treated better, achieve higher social status and earn more money, leading them to see the world as a just and fair place.

Now an American study published in the Journal of Public Economics based on comparing multiple surveys has concluded that the attractiveness of a person can correlate with their political beliefs.

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The authors, Rolfe Daus Peterson of Susquehanna University and Carl L Palmer of Illinois State University, wrote: “Controlling for socioeconomic status, we found that more attractive individuals are more likely to report higher levels of political efficacy, identify as conservative and identify as Republican.”

They attribute the trend to the “halo effect” – a form of cognitive bias by which specific positive traits influence a person’s view of other people.

Various studies over the years have shown that a person’s physical appearance significantly colours their life experience, and Peterson and Palmer say these life experiences mould our political views.



“Attractiveness matters. When we are treated differently we begin to perceive the world differently,” says Peterson. “Research shows good-looking people tend to get on better in life because people interact with them differently.”

The study reports this can lead them to have a “blind spot” when it comes to understanding the hardships faced by others – making them more likely to embrace individualism and reject the types of social assistance and welfare aid more commonly promoted by leftwing policy.



“All attractive people are not conservative and not all unattractive people are liberals,” said Peterson. But he added: “Attractiveness gives a person a small push in the conservative direction.”

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The researchers took data from the 1972, 1974 and 1976 American National Studies surveys which asked people to evaluate the appearance of others and also explored participants’ political beliefs, income, race, gender, and education.

These results were compared with the Wisconsin Longitudinal study which focused on the physical characteristics of more than 10,000 high school students who were rated by others on their level of attractiveness.

They said a connection between an individual’s physical attractiveness and political beliefs could be revealed. They found that attractive people faced fewer hurdles navigating the social world and were more likely to be conservative due to the blind spot theory.

“In a sense, attractive individuals have a blind spot that leads them to not see the need for more government support or aid in society,” Palmer and Peterson argue.