An individual’s physical appearance is one of many factors in determining people’s satisfaction with their lives and productivity in social interaction as numerous research and data have already proven. Although many academic institutions commit to fulfilling a high level of standards in restricting discrimination of any kind, one finding suggests otherwise.
An article published by the Department of Economics at Lund University, Sweden, reported that the students’ facial attractiveness is, in fact, an attributing factor in measuring academic proficiency at school, especially for female students.
It examined whether facially attractive students had an advantage in receiving higher grades, or so to speak if there was a “beauty premium” at school, by analyzing the data collected from both in-person and remote educational settings.
The educational courses that students were enrolled in were categorized into two: quantitative and non-quantitative courses. The quantitative courses are subjects such as mathematics and physics, which mostly grade the students’ work by their performances in written exams and rarely requires social interactions with colleagues and the teaching team, while the non-quantitative course is, for example, business, in which the grade is a cumulative sum of seminars, oral presentations, and group assignments along with the exams.
It turned out that the group of students who were rated higher in their facial attractiveness experienced a prominent deterioration in their academic performance (grades) during the remote instruction in comparison to that of in-person, particularly in non-quantitative subjects, even though the students were instructed with identical academic coursework and criteria in both in-person and remote learning environments.
Students’ attractiveness was actually helping them receive higher grades, explaining that attractive students tend to build a more positive social relationship with others and that advantage directly attributes to receiving better grades when in in-person learning, especially in non-quantitative subjects.
According to the Department of Economics at Lund University, non-quantitative subjects frequently required the students to engage in activities involving a construction of social networks or a demonstration of social skills, such as oral presentations and group assignments, which are examples of social interactions that people with attractive physical appearance are believed to be good at.
However, in quantitative courses like math and physics, only a little deviation was detected in the change of attractive students’ grades, in which the students are graded on their performance on written exams.
While attractive students of both sexualities are shown to have advantages in academic performance graded in in-person settings, only attractive female students received lower grades in non-quantitative subjects when instructions turned online. It suggested two possibilities: 1) facially attractive students received better grades in general, and 2) only female students received lower grades in remote learning because the “beauty premium” vanished where there was no direct social interaction in remote courses.
Attractive male students, however, received higher grades regardless of whether they took classes in-person or online. In fact, attractive male students experienced “productivity-enhancement” in all courses according to the study, referring to their “successfulness in peer influence and a personality trait positively linked to academic outcomes.”
Students and their guardians believe that their schools pursue an impartial principle of diversity and equity, but it seems like it will remain a subject of debate if the “beauty premium” still exists in the learning environments.
by Woo Hoon-Sik [Korea Daily]
