Do-gooders are seen as more good-looking because society expects good-looking people to do good: study

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A new study has uncovered a “fascinating link” between looks and behavior that suggests beauty is indeed more than skin deep.

Published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization , results of the study revealed that attractive people are expected by others to be more generous and kind. Furthermore, reserachers found the inverse to be true as well — that those who seem like good people are also percieved as good-looking.

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People form essential judgements about others — their potential as friend or foe — within just one second of an introduction, where appearance arguably plays the largest role in how we initially size-up another.

For those who study human beavhior, attractiveness is so important they consider it a form of social currency dubbed the “beauty premium.” More colloquially, this phenomenon is known as “pretty privilege,” wherein attractive people recieve preferential treatment based on their appearance. Previous reserach has shown that the most beautiful among us are assumed to be more trustworthy, coopoerative and well-liked on average.

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But do pretty people often deserve the privilege? Per PsyPost , study author Kajsa Hansson and her colleagues at Vienna University of Economics and Business sought to investigate why hotties are seen as less naughty.

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A series of game-based assesments involving 249 players with an average age of 42 showed that their more attractive avatars were treated more favorably overall while also presumed to behave more amicably towards others.

“We found that people often expect attractive individuals to behave more generously. However, the reverse is also true: generous individuals are perceived as more attractive,” study authors wrote.

“Understanding this can help us challenge our biases, leading to fairer judgments and actions.”

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