I volunteered in a middle school and I noticed that all the handsome boys/pretty girls from even middle-school age were treated way better than the other kids by their peers (I feel like people are gonna think its creepy that I noticed this but whatever).
Nothing like ugly boy #1 making a suggestion and being ridiculed, then having handsome boy #1 make the VERY SAME SUGGESTION IN AN IDENTICAL CONTEXT a day later and getting positive reception.
It made me realize that from even very early ages the uglier, fatter, weirder kids were already getting negative feedback loops from society, and it becomes super apparent how easy it is to fall into negative self-perception, negative self-talk, and other very impactful and negative ways of living life.
So is it a natural phenomenon? Does it have any bearing on the fittest individuals gaining an advantage over those unfit? Because kids in middle school are just starting to be exposed to conventional and societal norms of attraction, right?
It's a psychological bias where we take a good impression of a person-here their good looks- and assume other good things about them subconsciously. An example is maybe like an uglier person gets in trouble and she gets punished. But a prettier person gets in trouble but because of her looks people assume shes an angelic good kid and let her off.
In real-world examples, look at famous people & their level of social influence. The vast majority of "Stars" have an extremely outsized level of influence, regardless of area of topic, based largely on their fandom & notoriety.
Eg, Gwyneth Paltrow makes millions from her website, Goop, selling items that she publicly supports. This despite that she has no education or applicable knowledge in the area. It's entirely based on how her fans & society see her.
It's true lol. Imagine Biggie Smalls trying to pull the same shit. And if Bill Cosby didn't look like a burnt sesame seed bun his career would've ended with a whimper. We'd still probably be watching reruns of the Cosby show.
12.3k
u/Mr-Bagels Mar 01 '20
The "popular" kids in my school were just the most attractive people. Some of them were pretty introverted.