Preview

The Importance of Being Beautiful

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1404 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Importance of Being Beautiful
In Sidney Katz’s summary of “The Importance of being Beautiful”, she suggests that more attractive people can advance faster and easier in life than their less appealing peers. Katz explains her theory with different examples. One example is person perception, which is a branch of psychology that examines many ways in which physical attractiveness, or lack of it, affects all aspects of life. This helps explain the halo and horns effect. The halo effect is perceived as being beautiful, more generous, trustworthy, sociable, modest, and interesting. Whereas the horns effect people are perceived to be physically unattractive, there for they are mean, sneaky and dishonest. Katz also talks about how being physically attractive can help advance your career. If a man is six feet or taller, he will succeed in his career. If women are glamorous, they get higher pay and promotions. She also explains how old age and beauty has its advantages. Katz’s theory explains at nursing homes and hospitals doctors and nurses give better care to the beautiful. The doctors and nurses feel that beautiful patients are more likely to respond to treatment. Everyone judges people on either their looks or simply by what they wear. It is human nature for people to do this. The world shouldn’t be like this but unfortunately it is. Hopefully one day the human population can change the way people perceive one another.
In Sidney Katz’s summary of “The Importance of being Beautiful”, she suggests that more attractive people can advance faster and easier in life than their less appealing peers. Katz explains her theory with different examples. One example is person perception, which is a branch of psychology that examines many ways in which physical attractiveness, or lack of it, affects all aspects of life. This helps explain the halo and horns effect. The halo effect is perceived as being beautiful, more generous, trustworthy, sociable, modest, and interesting. Whereas the horns effect people are

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the article entitled The Ugly truth about Beauty written by Dave Barry, Barry illustrates how women view differently about their appearance than men. Women have very unrealistic perspectives on beauty. Society and the media, encourages low self-esteem. Making beauty unattainable for women and causing adversely affects upon relationships. Women focus so much on their appearance to say “not good enough”, purchasing products from the beauty industry. In contrast, Men on the other hand do not spend as much time and effort on their appearance like women; they do not spend countless hours in the mirror trying to figure out why he doesn’t look like Brad Pitt. Instead men would find some way to bolster their self-esteem that doesn’t require the looks of Brad Pitt. However to keep in mind that Dave Barry”; A man has written the article, “The ugly Truth about Beauty”. Barry implies that women have low self-esteem, yet no matter how much you tell women how great she looks, in her perspective she will stand face to face in the mirror still conclude that something is missing about her appearance. But “just because WE’RE idiots, that does not mean YOU have to be”.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    beauty industry, even if it means a lifetime of devotion to beauty regimen. Beauty seems to…

    • 3971 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Research shows that people have a tendency to think that people who are generally more attractive are also outgoing, happier, kinder, and successful and possesses several other positive personality traits. This stereotype appears to be true at times. Research studies have established positive correlation between attractiveness and traits such as social skills, self-confidence and personal income. A probable explanation is the view that people who are attractive are more valuable in the society and hence given preferential treatment (Myers,…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Beauty bias – people assume beautiful people have better qualities, beauty has its benefits (job promotions, make more money) but beauty is often confused with talent. Beautiful people may be viewed as vain and promiscuous causing them to be lied to more and distrust praise…

    • 4389 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Shallow Hal Research Paper

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages

    People who argue ‘There are some reasons that an attractive person is treated better’ because attractive people know how to express themselves and be more positive than unattractive people. There are support reasons that attractive people could grow up in that way because they did not be hurt or treated badly from other people. There is some truth in it. I don’t want to reject this point of view because when I look around, people who are not fit on beauty standard what society tells are usually gloomy, shy and passive. Nonetheless, this reasons cannot justify the…

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    At first, it may seem shallow to care a whole lot about one’s appearance, but according to Daniel Akst’s essay “What Meets the Eye”, we learn that in many ways, appearances actually serve as a source of inequality. In his expository piece, Akst probes into the importance of appearances in our society today; he explores the role that beauty plays in everyday life and and how it influences society. Akst makes numerous interesting discoveries on the role of appearances in society, but several of his arguments don’t seem to be well-argued.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Other researchers have demonstrated that both men and women assume that attractive people are more sensitive, kind, and sexually responsive than unattractive people. And they were thought to lead more exciting lives and have more prestigious careers. “This is a stereotype that’s held by virtually everyone-men and women, young…

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beauty in all of its intricate aspects, can be misinterpreted, judged, and crushed to its very core for the same reasons it was once praised. Society diminishes the prominence of beauty, while simultaneously inflicting pressure on the eradication of its imperfections. Women, nowadays, rely on more than just water, soap, and self-confidence to fabricate the mask society deems as pragmatic, and truly necessary. Although the misconception of the physical qualities possessing the upper level in the hierarchical scale of beauty has blindsided millions, there is time remaining to instill the concepts of authentic beauty, according to the article by Nicole James. Knowledge does not necessarily amplify wisdom, and therefore despite the exponentially…

    • 434 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Physical attractiveness affects many aspects of our lives. We are aware of how people can be judges by this. For example; being picked for sports, getting better grades, not being punished as strongly as others, etc.…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Harvard Medical School psychologist Nancy Etcoff says in “Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty” that there is something more to human reaction to beauty than a conditioned response to social cues. She added that looking good has survival value, and that sensitivity to beauty is a biological adaptation governed…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Manufacturing Beauty

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The physical attractiveness of a person influences every individual throughout every community, across the United States and around the world. All people inherit and alter their physical attractiveness, which is determined by complex, interdependent, physical, and non-physical factors. Hidden and not-hidden values drive thoughts and actions with significant effects and realities whereby higher physical attractiveness is beneficial, lower physical attractiveness is detrimental and associated pursuits are relentless. Physical attractiveness may look skin-deep as a surface aspect of appearance, but looks can be deceiving. Researchers throughout the world collect empirical data complemented with anecdotal data to probe beyond the surfaces. Through investigations that meet meticulous scientific methodological procedures, acute observations reveal previously undetected dimensions that advance understanding about physical attractiveness (Patzer, 2006).…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    There is a saying that beauty is only skin-deep; this skin must be very deep because beauty seems to affect every woman’s life. Why is that men are judged by what they do, what they drive, possess, etc, while women are judged by how they look? We live in a cruel, cold world, where a woman is not a complete package if she does not meet the society’s standard of beauty. For a man, their mind matters, where for a woman, the outer matters so much more. This, unfortunately, is the superficial world we live in. Women have become slaves to this ideal beauty, and it has affected women negatively physically and emotionally. The truth is, the more beautiful a woman a regarded, the better…

    • 2249 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Averett, S., Korenman, S. (1996). The economic reality of the beauty myth. Journal of Human Resources 31(2), 304-330.…

    • 3793 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Beauty Myth

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Beauty Myth, published by Doubleday in New York City, hit the shelves in 1992. Naomi Wolf wrote this 348-page book. Wolf attended Yale University and New College, Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. Her essays have been printed in many well-known magazines and newspapers, including Esquire and the New York Times. The Beauty Myth was Wolf's first book. She has also written two other books, Fire With Fire and Promiscuities. Wolf is a recognized feminist. She has done a lot of writing and has spoken to many audiences about issues involving feminism. In The Beauty Myth, Wolf's basic thesis states that there is a connection between female liberation and female beauty. She writes: The more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty have come to weigh upon us….During the past decade, women breached the power structure; meanwhile, eating disorders rose exponentially and cosmetic surgery became the fastest-growing medical specialty….Recent research consistently shows that inside the majority of the…attractive, successful working women, there is a …dark vein of self-hatred, physical obsessions, terror of aging, and dread of lost control. (Wolf 10) Wolf's research shows that there is an attack against feminism that uses images of female beauty to keep women "in their place". Women today are more powerful than ever before, yet they are more self-conscience as well. The media has created a standard of beauty that is impossible to attain and women are developing obsessive behaviors trying to measure up to that standard. We are constantly surrounded by images of the "perfect" woman. She is tall, thin and beautiful. She rarely looks older than 25, has a flawless body, and her hair and clothes are always perfect. She is not human. She is often shown in pieces – a stomach, a pair of legs, a beautifully made up eye or mouth. Our culture judges women, and women judge…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Beautyism” is giving a person preference or hiring someone due to their outward beauty. Some research has suggested that people who are outwardly beautiful get hired faster, get paid more, and receive better treatment in life in general, becoming more successful than others. While this may be true to an extent, I do believe that the opposite is also true, attractive people are over-looked due to their outward appearance and are taken less seriously even when qualified or more qualified than another candidate. This is not to mention that life brings challenges, hurts, and un-pleasantries, regardless of how a person looks. So we cannot be too quick to say that beautiful people have better lives.…

    • 881 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays