Study: Being Attractive As Valuable To Career As College Degree

If you’re attractive, it’s just as valuable as a college degree for your career prospects, according to a new study.

The study, from Leuphana University of Luneburg, Germany, used a survey ranking the looks of 3,000 people from 1 to 11 in terms of attractiveness. The study found that the more attractive people were ahead of the rest in terms of pay increases and promotions.

“The results show that just one point above average on the attractiveness scale and the chance of getting employed rises by three percent,” study head Professor Christian Pfeifer wrote in the Applied Economics Letters journal.

He continued, “Five points more — that is about the difference between an ordinary face and downright beauty — helps in getting a job as much as a university degree.”

The study found that the boost in earnings was the same for men and women.

Pfeifer said the disparity may be attributed to an increase in confidence resulting from good looks, or that attractiveness may make a subtle impression on prospective bosses.