Beauty and the labor market: Part II

Study finds that the 'beauty penalty' on an workers earnings can be harsh, according to a recently published Rice University study. Like numerous other economic studies of the labor market, this new experimental economics study suggests that people that are deemed to be attractive by their peers earn more. The interesting twist in this study however was people who were deemed to be attractive were tended to be penalized more harshly when expectations were not met.

The authors of the economic study, “Judging a Book by Its Cover: Beauty and Expectations in the Trust Game,” suggest that this type of stereotyping can lead to a new and different type of employment discrimination that can impact promotions and terminations and scapegoating and other kinds of behaviors that take place every day.