Can you be too beautiful? It is hardly a problem that most of us have to bother — as much as we might like to dream that it were the case.
Yet the blessings and curses of beauty have been a long-standing interest in psychology. Do those blessed with shiny faces and an attractive body live in a cloud of appreciation — or does it sometimes pay to be ordinary?
Combing through decades of findings, social psychologists Lisa Slattery Walker and Tonya Frevert at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte have reviewed all the evidence to date and their conclusions are not what you might expect.
At the most basic level, beauty might be thought to carry a kind of halo(光环) around it; we see that someone has one good quality, and by association, our deep mind may assume that they have other good ones too.
Even in the courts, a pleasing appearance can work its magic. Attractive criminals are likely to get less strict sentences, or to escape punishment entirely; attractive plaintiffs(原告), meanwhile, are more likely to win their case and get bigger financial settlements. “It’s an effect seen everywhere,” says Walker.
But if beauty pays in most circumstances, there are still situations where it can have opposite results. While attractive men may be considered better leaders, for instance, hidden sexist prejudices(偏见) can work against attractive women, making them less likely to be hired for high-level jobs that require power. And as you might expect, good-looking people of both sexes run into envy — one study found that if you are interviewed by someone of the same sex, they may be less likely to employ you if they judge that you are more attractive than they are.
More worryingly, being beautiful or handsome could harm your medical care. We tend to link good looks to health, meaning that illnesses are often taken less seriously when they affect the good-looking. When treating people for pain, for instance, doctors tend to take less care over the more attractive people.
And the bubble of beauty can be a somewhat lonely place. One study in 1975, for instance, found that people tend to move further away from a beautiful woman on the pathway — perhaps as a mark of respect, but still making interaction more distant. “Attractiveness can convey more power over visible space — but that in turn can make others feel they can’t approach that person,” says Frevert. Interestingly, the online dating website OKCupid recently reported that people with the most beautiful pictures are less likely to find dates than those with less perfect pictures.
Ultimately, Frevert points out that focusing too much on your appearance can itself be harmful if it creates stress and anxiety — even for those already blessed with good looks. “If you are crazy about attractiveness, it may affect your experience and interactions,” she says. It’s an outdated saying, but no amount of beauty can make up for a bad personality. As the writer Dorothy Parker put it so elegantly: “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.”
41. From paragraph 1, we can learn that _______.
A. some may be bothered by their unattractive appearance
B. most people are not afraid of being too beautiful
C. we might always dream about being bothered by others
D. being too beautiful can be a problem bothering everyone
42. Which is the benefit for beautiful people?
A. An attractive plaintiff has more chances to get away with punishment.
B. Women with pleasing appearance will always be considered as better leaders.
C. Good-looking people are often regarded as having many good qualities.
D. Beautiful criminals are more likely to persuade the judge and win the case.
43. What can be inferred from OKCupid’s finding?
A. People with perfect pictures will find dates sooner or later.
B. Less attractive women are lonely because of their appearances.
C. We may feel more excited to approach those with attractive appearances.
D. Don’t use perfect pictures when trying to find dates online.
44. The writer mentioned the underlined sentence in the last paragraph to _______.
A. persuade us to pay more attention to our looks from now on
B. suggest that beauty can help make a better personality
C. encourage us to focus more on improving our personality
D. ask ugly people to have more confidence in their personality
45. What might be the best title for the passage?
A. Negative Sides of Beauty B. Sexist Prejudice
C. Blessed with Beauty D. Beauty vs Ugliness