The ugly truth? Good looks make you richer, happier

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Updated: March 30, 2011 6:07PM

Money might not buy happiness, but beauty buys both money and happiness, according to a new study involving more than 25,000 people worldwide.

Economists at the University of Texas-Austin analyzed data from five large surveys conducted from 1971 to 2009 in the United States, Canada, Germany and Britain and found that beautiful people generally are happier than others.

And they say it’s the economic benefit — money — that results from beauty that accounts for at least half of that extra happiness.

“The majority of beauty’s effect on happiness works through its impact on economic outcomes,” says lead author Daniel Hamermesh.

Numerous studies have concluded that beauty helps the budget by providing greater wealth in several ways: Better-looking people generally earn more money and marry those who are better-looking and higher-earning, Hamermesh says.

In the new study, participants were asked about their levels of happiness. Their looks were rated by interviewers face-to-face or from photos. Those in the top 15 percent of people ranked by looks were more than 10 percent happier than those in the bottom 10 percent.

Though the findings — published by the German-based Institute for the Study of Labor — held true for both men and women, the researchers say beauty affects women’s happiness more directly than men’s.

“For a woman, it just matters to walk down the street being good-looking,” Hamermesh says. “For a man, beauty’s direct relation to happiness is not as great. It will give you a better-looking wife, a higher-earning wife and, most important, extra earnings.”

Should the findings make you think twice about plastic surgery or other beauty enhancements?

Don’t bother, he says, citing a 2002 study he conducted that looked at the effect of buying better clothes, hair and cosmetics. “Your beauty is determined to a tremendous extent by the shape of your face, by its symmetry and how everything hangs together.”