Over the years I’ve heard people say that being attractive can take you places, including furthering your career. I’ve never really taken that sentiment seriously, but there might be an ounce of truth to it. According to research by Swedish beauty tech brand FOREO, being attractive can help you get your dream job, network more effectively and influence people in the workplace. The research also reveals that 65% of people across the world admit they believe that attractive people are more successful.
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Visual First Impressions Count
The global independent research carried out by the brand questioned more than 6300 people from 100 countries, and controversial as it may be, the numbers are here to put this hot topic to bed (kind of) as 81% of people agreed that attractive people find it easier to network vs a meagre 5% who believe being beautiful is actually a hindrance and 14% who said that attractiveness bears no impact.
When it comes to interviews, FOREO revealed how much first impressions count and 39% of people admitted that they had direct experience of their attractiveness impacting offers of employment.
To break this down, 28% reported that they have received a job offer because of their attractiveness with 4% claiming that they didn’t get a job offer because they were too attractive and 7% feeling judged for not being attractive enough, ultimately losing out on the offer.
The Pressure Attractive People Face
The pressure to put your best face forward in an interview is felt on a global scale with 68% of people admitting that they have never attended an interview makeup-free. Interestingly, once the job is secured only 35% of respondents claimed to wear makeup to work every day despite 71% of respondents reporting that wearing makeup at work makes them feel more confident.
Shockingly, 53% of people admitted that people respond to them more positively at work when they wear makeup. On the flip side, 34% of people divulged that they have felt unfairly judged at work as a result of having bad skin. And the influence of beauty doesn’t stop there. Persuasion is one of the most in-demand soft skills of 2019 according to Linkedin and is a key factor of professional success. From the thousands of people questioned, 65% of respondents believe that being attractive actually makes you more persuasive at work.
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Asia Believes That Attractive People are More Successful
On a regional level, Asia consistently scored the highest across most categories with an astounding 77% of respondents believing that being attractive makes you more successful. In East Asia, 45% of respondents even received a job offer because of their attractiveness. This was followed by Southeast Asia (40%), Middle East (32%), Africa (31%). In contrast, the region with the lowest percentage was Central Europe with only 20% of respondents claiming to have received a job offer based on attractiveness.
Asia also reported the highest percentage of people that respond to them more positively at work when wearing makeup at 66%. East Asia was next (58%) followed by Africa (56%) and Latin America (54%). The Middle East had the highest percentage of respondents to report that people responded to them in a more negative way at work when wearing makeup, though this only sat at 11%. When it comes to wearing makeup for interviews, Africa was the only region to report a higher percentage of people who had attended an interview makeup-free (59%) than those who had not (41%).
Moving onto the topic of networking, again Asia placed top with an almost unanimous 91% of people from Southeast Asia voting that attractive people find it easier to network. East Asia ranked second (89%), Australasia (82%) and North America (80%) but this is pretty consistent across the board with Latin America reporting the lowest percentage which still amounted to 73%.
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Foreo’s Take on This Research
Dalia Fernandez, FOREO’s Product Development Manager at the FOREO Institute says that the topic of beautiful people having it easy has long been debated and as they’re in the business of beauty, they wanted to speak to their audience and collect their thoughts and experiences. “It’s particularly interesting to see the correlation between good skin and increased confidence. When you look good, you feel good and this data definitely speaks to that. The insights that we were able to uncover on regional levels around the world is fascinating, displaying corporate cultures, behaviours and attitudes can differ massively depending on locations and customs.”
Your Take
That said, what are your thoughts on attractive people being more successful? Do you need to simply have a pretty face to get your dream job, or do the smarts matter as well? Or maybe, could it be a combination of both? Feel free to share your thoughts…
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2 Comments
A combination of both definitely helps. Those figures are truly interesting. Thanks for sharing. xx
True, a combination can work magic, it’s just a pity having the smarts is not good enough. Thanks for passing by 😉