ABSTRACT
A recent post on the Chinese Microblog by a computer engineer provoked heated discussion on looks-based discrimination. This computer engineer received a reduced annual employee bonus because he was considered “too ugly” by his new supervisor. 1 While many readers of this post were outraged by this incident of looks-based discrimination, economic “penalties” for being “ugly” are actually not rare at all. According to a 1994 study in the United States, working men considered the least attractive “are penalized about 9 percent in hourly earnings” (Hamermesh and Biddle 1994). Other studies show that less attractive individuals are less likely to be hired or promoted (Hosoda et al. 2003; Mobius and Rosenblat 2006). Moreover, plainness in looks may disadvantage a person not just economically, but also relationally. Studies showed that plain-looking people have fewer opportunities for social interaction than the better looking (Juhnke 1987; Mulford et al. 1998; Chapter 31). An article recently published on an LGBT community website, Advocate, serves as an illustration. Citing a frequent caveat in online dating profiles – “No Fats, Femmes, or Asians”, the author criticized the looks-based biases in the North American gay community (Nguyen 2011). Unlike the Chinese Microblog post, the response this article received was less than sympathetic.
