"Ugly" people must put up with these 8 discriminations

There is a lot of talk about racism or sexism as a form of discrimination, and these phenomena receive great media coverage.

However, A very common type of discrimination that is socially accepted is discrimination based on physical appearance., known as "aspectism". Unattractive people suffer a series of discriminatory consequences that we are going to review in this article.

Discrimination based on physical appearance and its consequences

Discrimination based on physical appearance or appearanceism is a widespread phenomenon today. In a culture that rewards physical beauty, ugliness is punished in different areas of people's lives: interpersonal relationships, work, social events...

Some experts such as the North American psychologist David Marks agree in stating that "ugly people suffer from aspectism (lookism in English), that is, discrimination based on physical appearance, which occurs with more often than the racism or sexism that is talked about a lot today and that is socially very penalized”.

The aspectism goes unnoticed and it does not seem that things are going to improve, because there is neither an interest nor a social conscience to solve it.

Discriminatory attitudes towards the ugly

Some time ago, Juan Antonio Herrero Brasas, professor of Ethics and Public Policy at the California State University (USA), who usually teaches classes in some American multinationals, told the newspaper El Mundo that: “when I go to give talks for executives in these large companies, all the attendees have a physical appearance imposing. There are almost no individuals who can be classified as ugly”.

So. Are less attractive individuals discriminated against? What discriminatory attitudes do they suffer? In the following lines you can find a list of discriminatory consequences that ugly people suffer.

1. They are more likely to suffer bullying and mobbing

It is common to hear news about bullying that some children or adolescents may suffer at school or institute (bullying) or some employees in the workplace (mobbing). This harassment does not have to be physical, but is usually psychological.

A well-known case of cyberbullying for this reason is that of Lynelle Cantwell, a Canadian teenager who was chosen as the ugliest girl in school by a group of anonymous profiles who spread this fact through social networks. Luckily, Lynelle did not remain silent and has appeared in various media outlets to expose what happened, with the mission to make everyone aware of this harsh reality suffered by many children who are not exactly graceful in terms of appearance physical.

• Related article: “Cyberbullying: analyzing the characteristics of virtual bullying”

But this phenomenon is not only exclusive to the youngest, but adults also discriminate and harass due to physical appearance. According to a study carried out by a group of researchers from Michigan State University and the University of Notre Dame (United States), which was published in the journal human performance, ugly people are more likely to be harassed in their workplace. The subjects of the study were 114 employees of a health center located in the southern United States.

2. They earn less money than the handsome ones

Some scientists also claim that ugly people earn less money than good-looking ones.

The University of California conducted a study that was published in the Journal of Economic Psychology, and the results show that less attractive people earn more than 12% less on average than good-looking individuals. As the group of scientists explains: "These conclusions are applicable in different societies and in different workplaces."

3. Fewer job opportunities

But not only when it comes to getting paid do less attractive people suffer discrimination, but they also have fewer opportunities to work. This concludes a study conducted in 2010 and led by Ze'ev Shtudiner and Bradley J. Ruffle from Ariel University in Israel and the University of Ontario in Canada. According to the results, a normal person has to send twice as much resume than attractive people to get employment.

Likewise, a study by Sergio Urzúa and Florencia Bóo Martín carried out in 2011 concluded that handsome men, compared to the ugly, they receive 36% more responses from the companies they apply for a job with.

4. They are seen as conversationalists, not objects of desire

Ugly people are victims of a series of stereotypes. An example of this is the great impact that the agency "Ugly Models" has had for not hiring attractive models but ugly ones.

Hollywood surely has something to do with this fact, but the truth is that ugly people are seen more as conversationalists than as objects of desire. In relationships with the other sexes, they are often relegated to the role of friends, so they are less likely to amount to anything more.

5. And they have fewer opportunities to flirt

Therefore, this causes ugly people to be less accepted by others in terms of relationships and, consequently, flirt less. In fact, it makes quite an impact when someone sees an ugly person with an attractive person. On these occasions, it is often thought that there must be an economic interest behind it. As if the ugly did not have the qualities to make others fall in love.

Actually, ugly people have a series of seductive weapons and qualities that can be highly valued by other people. If you want to know what they are, you can read our article: “Why do ugly people flirt? 7 keys to understand it”

6. They go unnoticed at social events

And it also looks weird when an ugly guy is popular. Ugly people are usually not the popular people at school or the “cool” people at parties.

The ugly ones tend to remain in the background and are often rejected by people who do not even take two minutes to discover how much they hide inside. Being handsome or pretty opens many doors for you, being ugly or ugly closes them for you..

7. are less remembered

Beautiful people are more remembered than ugly people. This is what is shown by research led by Michael Baker, from the American University of East Carolina, which was published in the scientific journal Evolutionary Psychology.

According to the conclusions, the fact of looking at the faces of attractive people can be pleasant for the human organism and improve memory, so ugly people are less remembered than beautiful. Not only that, but the same research found that beautiful people increase the motivation and focus of the people they associate with.

8. They receive less help

There are many studies that show that beautiful people receive more help than ugly people. For example, research that was published in Frontiers in Neuroscience showed that men are willing to accept deals that are not advantageous to them if a pretty woman asks them to.

Likewise, there are many social experiments that have been carried out in recent years that show this reality. Below you can see two videos that exemplify how men treat beautiful women and how they treat ugly women:

As you can see, the attractive woman was escorted to the place she intended to go to and was even invited to eat. And in the case of ugly women, what is the reaction of the people? Well, the opposite happens. Here you can see it: