Looks and Longevity: Do Prettier People Live Longer?

By Connor M. Sheehan and Daniel S. Hamermesh.

I have several posts on how better looking get better results like higher pay and better terms on loans (see Related Posts below). Daniel Hamermesh has done quite a bit of research on topics like this and his name is mentioned in several of these other posts.

"Abstract

Social scientists have given relatively scant attention to the association between attractiveness and longevity. But attractiveness may convey underlying health, and it systematically structures critical social stratification processes. We evaluated these issues using the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS, N=8,386), a survey of Wisconsin high school graduates from 1957 which provided large samples of women and men observed until their death (or through their early 80s). In doing so, we utilized a meticulously constructed measure of facial attractiveness based on the independent ratings of high-school yearbook photographs. We used linked death information from the National Death Index-plus through 2022 and Cox proportional hazard models as well as standard life-table techniques. We found that the least attractive rated sextile of the sample had significantly higher hazards of mortality (HR: 1.168, p <0.01) compared to the middle rated four sextiles of attractiveness. This finding remained robust to the inclusion of covariates describing high-school achievement, intelligence, family background, earnings as adults, as well as mental and physical health in middle adulthood. We also found that different specifications of the attractiveness measure consistently indicated no significant differences in the mortality hazard between highly attractive and average-looking people. Using life-table techniques, we next illustrated that among women in the least attractive sextile, at age 20 their life expectancy was nearly 2 years less than others’; among men in the least attractive sextile, it was nearly 1 year less at age 20."

Related posts:

The obesity pay gap is worse than previously thought (2023)

The Moral Hazards of Being Beautiful: Research shows that attractive people tend to receive unearned esteem from others and cultivate self-serving beliefs (2023)

Attractiveness is associated with the belief that economic success is dependent on individual effort, rather than external circumstances (2022)

Do looks matter for an academic career in economics? (2021)

Higher economic status can offset lower physical attractiveness in men much more easily than in women (2017) 

The Unfairness of Unattractiveness (2016)

Better Looking Real Estate Agents Make More Money (2014)
   
Do Good Looking People Get Better Loan Terms? (2014)
 
Do Looks Help In The Job Market?  (2012)
 
From The Life Is Not Fair Category: Better Looking, Tall, Thin People Make More Money (2011)

Do looks matter? (2011)