Lorenz, Kate (2004) “ Do Pretty People Earn More?” CAREER BUILDER.COM, 6/11
____________,(2004) “Living Wild: Animal Behavior” NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL, 6/12, 12 PM

Pretty people seem to have all the fun. We look at them from a distance and imagine that their lives are perfect. They grace the cover of magazines, advertisements, cable and the internet. If you want to sell something, use a pretty person.

This also appears across culture, across species, although what is thought to be beautiful or handsome still have some variance.

Physiologists, psychologists and sociologist note that we stratify by appearance. Billions are spent on cosmetics, cosmetic surgery, and diet/exercise.

For animals and humans, males fight or compete for females. The aggression can be quite severe or relatively harmless depending on species. Females do not automatically gravitate to the winner. If they find him not to their liking, they choose to antagonize unwanted lovers. They keep pushing until they get the best of the choices. They also may mate on the side with other males. In other words, mating is not a passive venture for females. Much of their life is built on rejecting and attracting until they maximize their choice and the best genetics for their offspring.

Human females may also choose not to procreate, but want to marry. Chatting and persuasiveness are also prominent in mating.

Attractive people also make more money. Parents love them, teachers adore them, doctors and nurses fuss over them, and handsome and pretty criminals get lighter sentences.

There are also penalties for non-attractive people. They get less attention and fewer rewards. Short males get less money. Overweight females are more likely to unemployed and make less money. Attractive people are thought to be more attractive, more sensitive, and more intelligent.

The rest of us can cope by dressing better, acting upbeat and maintaining eye contact.

There is a downside to being pretty. Others may at times, think the facey pretty ones are shallow, empty, and not very bright. Attractiveness is also lost with age, thus the boon in cosmetic surgery. Additionally, the pretty person fears that no one would like them if they really knew the amount of grooming that is involved in looking pretty. That applies to both sexes.

There appears to be symmetry to attractiveness. When eyes, nose, brows, chin and related are in perfect symmetry and equidistant on one side of the face as it relates to the other, the person receives a near perfect 1 and in lowly 10 rating nearly all features are wrinkled and out of proportion.

Hip to ratio for women is .7 and for men .9 Males can have a prominent nose and chin or fine features to be attractive. Women must have fine features.

If you want to rate strangers by appearance, go to www. Uni-saarland.de/fax5/Ronald/ Research/research_e.htm. You can stratify average looking people. Evaluate people with and without hair. Do personality assessments of individual females and males based on appearance.

In the long run, appearance is but one dimension in one’s life, it does not guarantee happiness, good health, competency, or worth. The world of strangers loves us conditionally until they get to know us. Good looks don’t guarantee heaven or good karma for the next life lived here on earth. If one’s good looks are used inappropriately, it can guarantee a black hole in the experience of life.

Although, one is told daily how important good looks are, in the long run, it can be a curse if used improperly.