The results also showed that the switch to online learning in 2024 eliminated the beauty advantage — but only for female students. For non-quantitative courses, attractive female students experienced a drop in grades with remote learning, while attractive male students continued to see the benefits of their appearance.
According to Mehic, this suggests that discrimination likely explains the beauty premium for female students, who no longer enjoyed higher grades in remote settings. In contrast, the beauty premium for male students appears to be due to productivity-enhancing traits, since their grades remained higher despite lower interaction with instructors.
“The main takeaway is that both male and female students experience a beauty premium when teaching is in person,” Mehic explained. “But for females, this effect disappears with online teaching. This, at least to me, suggests that the beauty premium for males is due to some productivity-related factors, such as higher self-confidence, while for women, it’s more likely caused by discrimination.”
The main takeaway is men don’t experience a beauty premium, that’s why they remain unaffected while attractive women suffer. This is one of those subtle subversions, it clearly can’t be that women experience a pussy pass that men don’t so we must pretend attractive men get benefits somehow, because no ugly man has ever been confident or had social skills.
I disagree. I think what is going on is something more like:
Bob is the most attractive guy in his senior class. It helps him win Student Body President. He learns many skills and grows as a person as a result of his experience in the position.
Alice is the most attractive girl in her senior class. It helps her win Homecoming Queen. She gets a crown.
Attractiveness helps women at that moment. It situations where they cannot directly exploit it or their attractiveness fades, the advantage is gone. Men leverage the advantage for self-improvement, creating a persistent benefit that remains even if the attractiveness does not.
tl;dr: "Beauty premium" is transitive without ambition, which skews male.
As others have said, it's also possible that the physical qualities that are attractive in men are considered attractive specifically because they correlate with other qualities. For all we know, jawline and spatial reasoning share a gene somewhere. Human pattern recognition is far better than we give it credit for.
Edit: And now for a completely different angle. Girls are significantly more social than boys. Attractive girls are at the tip of the social hierarchy and, as such, are generally much more invested in it. If "remote learning" also means social isolation, it would be easy to believe that the students most likely to suffer mentally would be the social butterflies. The loner in the library sees no change, but Becky's world is crashing down. Basically, it's an interesting point of data (if true) but drawing any conclusions from it is impossible. Especially not, "muh discrimination!." Focusing solely on instructor interaction is a huge failing of this report.
Here’s my caveat at least: male confidence and social skills aren’t inherently due to attractiveness, but status. Being attractive can help their status and thereby their confidence, but so can being talented, wealthy, or simply raised by someone who understands the value of raising confident sons. You can very easily argue male testosterone levels also vastly influence their social abilities. Female confidence is nearly entirely dependent on their appearance.
Your edit was interesting in the social isolation aspect having a more detrimental effect on attractive women as well. It would make sense they have a more severe impact because they are used to their status being reaffirmed by social interactions.
The main takeaway is men don’t experience a beauty premium, that’s why they remain unaffected while attractive women suffer. This is one of those subtle subversions, it clearly can’t be that women experience a pussy pass that men don’t so we must pretend attractive men get benefits somehow, because no ugly man has ever been confident or had social skills.
I disagree. I think what is going on is something more like:
Bob is the most attractive guy in his senior class. It helps him win Student Body President. He learns many skills and grows as a person as a result of his experience in the position.
Alice is the most attractive girl in her senior class. It helps her win Homecoming Queen. She gets a crown.
Attractiveness helps women at that moment. It situations where they cannot directly exploit it or their attractiveness fades, the advantage is gone. Men leverage the advantage for self-improvement, creating a persistent benefit that remains even if the attractiveness does not.
tl;dr: "Beauty premium" is transitive without ambition, which skews male.
As others have said, it's also possible that the physical qualities that are attractive in men are considered attractive specifically because they correlate with other qualities. For all we know, jawline and spatial reasoning share a gene somewhere. Human pattern recognition is far better than we give it credit for.
Edit: And now for a completely different angle. Girls are significantly more social than boys. Attractive girls are at the tip of the social hierarchy and, as such, are generally much more invested in it. If "remote learning" also means social isolation, it would be easy to believe that the students most likely to suffer mentally would be the social butterflies. The loner in the library sees no change, but Becky's world is crashing down. Basically, it's an interesting point of data (if true) but drawing any conclusions from it is impossible. Especially not, "muh discrimination!." Focusing solely on instructor interaction is a huge failing of this report.
Here’s my caveat at least: male confidence and social skills aren’t inherently due to attractiveness, but status. Being attractive can help their status and thereby their confidence, but so can being talented, wealthy, or simply raised by someone who understands the value of raising confident sons. You can very easily argue male testosterone levels also vastly influence their social abilities. Female confidence is nearly entirely dependent on their appearance.
I agree with the additional point that those male testosterone levels also impact physical attractiveness.
Your edit was interesting in the social isolation aspect having a more detrimental effect on attractive women as well. It would make sense they have a more severe impact because they are used to their status being reaffirmed by social interactions.