There's one big downside to being too goddamn hot

You might think that hot people have an easy life; free drinks, better customer service, more money and an endless supply of eager sexual partners.

But according to new research it seems you’d be wrong.

Experts at the London Business School have found that when applying for certain jobs, more attractive people can be at a real disadvantage.

Writing in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers found that better looking applicants are worse off when the job is perceived to be less desirable or glamorous.

This is because interviewers will pre-judge how much they think people will want to do a certain job and assume that more beautiful people will be more interested in a higher status position.

The researchers tested more than 750 participants, including university students and human resources managers, in their evaluation of the influence of physical attractiveness on hiring decisions.

They said: “People generally hold positive stereotypes of physically attractive people and because of those stereotypes often treat them more favorably. However, we propose that some beliefs about attractive people, specifically, the perception that attractive individuals have a greater sense of entitlement than less attractive individuals, can result in negative treatment of attractive people.

“When selecting candidates for relatively less desirable jobs, decision makers try to ascertain whether a candidate would be satisfied in those jobs, and the stereotype of attractive individuals feeling entitled to good outcomes makes decision makers judge attractive candidates as more likely to be dissatisfied in relatively less (but not more) desirable jobs.

“Consequently, attractive candidates are discriminated against in the selection for relatively less desirable jobs.”

Speaking to Quartz, the study’s co-author Margaret Lee added: “We found that people perceive attractive individuals to feel more entitled to good outcomes than unattractive individuals.

“Our work suggests that we may need to think differently about low level jobs.

“Jobs that are considered to be less desirable are typically those at the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum, including a disproportionate number of people who might be particularly vulnerable if they become victims of discrimination.”

If you ask us we’d still prefer to be devastatingly good looking, but if you’re in charge of hiring people this is definitely worth bearing in mind. 

(Images: Rex/iStock)