Pretty People May Live Longer, According To A New Study

Is there a correlation between facial attractiveness and longevity? Researchers from Arizona State University and the Department of Economics at the University of Texas Austin are exploring the topic with a new study published this month.

In the groundbreaking study titled Looks and Longevity: Do Prettier People Live Longer?, researchers assessed how physical attractiveness influences longevity by combining mortality data from the National Death Index-plus up to 2022 with yearbook photos from The Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS). By following 8,386 Wisconsin high school graduates from the class of 1957 throughout their lives until their death or into their early 80s, the findings revealed that individuals rated as the least attractive, comprising the bottom one-sixth, faced a 16.8% higher risk of mortality compared to those of average attractiveness. Specifically, at age 20, women in this least attractive group lived nearly two years less, while men lived almost one year less compared to their more attractive peers.

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To find the results, the team assessed facial attractiveness using high school yearbook photos, which were rated by 12 trained judges—six men and six women—on an 11-point scale to ensure consistent evaluations. They also applied statistical models to control for factors such as educational achievement, intelligence, family background, earnings, and health to isolate the specific impact of attractiveness on lifespan.

Interestingly, there were no significant differences in mortality risk between highly attractive individuals and those with average attractiveness. This indicates that while being unattractive is associated with a shorter lifespan, being highly attractive does not provide additional longevity benefits beyond average looks. This pattern held true across various life stages and measures of attractiveness within the sample group. 

The team also found a correlation between facial attractiveness and income.  

Connor M. Sheehan, an associate professor at Arizona State University and a co-author of the intriguing study told ASU News that they also explored additional factors, including the potential relationship between attractiveness and income.

“Factors manifest in dating and marriage. For instance, previous research has indicated that women who are perceived as less attractive tend to marry men who earn less and have less education,” said Sheehan. “Given that there are life expectancy differences across levels of attractiveness, we then calculated how much less social security people rated as less attractive would receive given their shorter lives. Unattractive women could expect to receive about 6% less social security benefits than other women, i.e., about $250,000 less over their lives.”

In the future, Sheehan and his team plan to investigate the connection between facial attractiveness and longevity using larger sample sizes across the United States. They noted that the small pool of Wisconsin yearbook photos used in the current study provides limited data that may not fully represent the broader U.S. population. Additionally, the sample was predominantly non-Hispanic white, which restricts the applicability of the findings to diverse racial and ethnic groups.

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