Pretty or Unpretty

We watched another video in my multicultural class last night. It discussed how a person's attractiveness affects not only how others perceive them, but the opportunities they get as well. The video put hidden cameras on two individuals going for an interview for the same job - a very attractive person and an ordinary-looking person. The results showed that 5 out of 5 times, the very attractive person received the immediate job offer, even though they were highly under qualified for the job. One employer even said to the attractive person, "well you definitely look like a stockbroker so you're hired", even though in the interview the man had only answered with a couple "yes" and "no" replies and mostly "mhm". The video went on to show that young students also valued a teacher with more attractiveness, and associated better teaching skills to them as well.

I found this video interesting. I never realized how the value of being attractive is instilled into children's minds. The students on the video were first/second graders. It makes you wonder, when we're trying to always teach children that looks aren't everything and how you are as a person also matters a lot, do they always understand that when society tells them otherwise? Even though I consider myself an open-minded and accepting person, I still notice times in my own life when I become judgmental and form opinions based on how a person looks. It is probably something I should work on.

It also makes me realize more how unfair the world is. If we're supposed to be setting high value on an individual's personality and not just their appearance, there wouldn't be statistics this alarming. Maybe I need to improve my appearance to increase the likelihood of getting a job. There's that saying, "nice guys finish last"...but maybe it's only the nice guys (and girls) that are also unfortunately, unattractive. go figure.