Friday, January 8, 2010

Is there a relationship between physical beauty and happiness?

No. Sometimes an unusually attractive person feels like they have to live up to everybody's standards of beauty. They feel pressured to look perfect all the time.





People also make baseless assumptions about them, such as pretty girls are stupid and easy. Being constantly hit on by guys who only want to get in your pants is no picnic.





I do think, however, that unusually unattractive people are equally miserable. There's a regular in GWS who is convinced that women don't like him because of his looks. I'm sure he looks fine (I've never seen his picture), but feeling insecure about your looks is not going to lead to happiness.Is there a relationship between physical beauty and happiness?
Note, this is personal conjecture. I am not a psychologist.





To some extent, sure. No matter how much we might like to claim otherwise, we're programmed by society (particularly in Western Society) to find physical attractiveness desirable, to a much greater extent than might occur naturally because of our genes.





Especially when we're younger, say in high school, and trying to find our place in the world, great importance is placed on physical appearance rather than skills, aptitude, or any other attribute. Those who are less-attractive or who suffer from acne might very well feel upset, depressed, or otherwise unhappy, while the more attractive people lead a life of comparative luxury, being with the ';popular'; crowd, and having the romantic/sexual interests of a greater number of people.





As is the case with many things in high school, much of this likely carries on into later life.





For more solid information, I've included a link which may help in the sources section below.
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