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.