Daniel Hamermesh sports a luscious and handsome beard, made grey with age, and a shiny dome that many men his age are accustomed to having due to the curse of balding. The 71-year-old American professor reckons that on an attractiveness scale of 1 to 5, he is firmly in the middle – 3. He’s the average grandfather Joe on the street, a face not built for second glances. Yet, Hamermesh is convinced of one fact of life – good-looking people are more successful in life.
Hamermesh has devoted most of his academic career studying the effects of beauty and published a book in 2011, Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People are More Successful. According to Hamermesh’s research, in an entire lifetime, good-looking folks tend to earn 3 to 4 percent more than an average bloke. That might not seem like much but, over the course of your life, that attractive person ......