Global study: Beautiful people are not successful everywhere

Beauty catches the eye, but does it also influence social success? And do people in Paris, Hanoi, and Bucharest think the same about it? A new study published in the journal "Scientific Reports" has systematically and cross-nationally examined these questions for the first time.

For the analysis, the University of Mannheim and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich used large-scale language models in 68 languages. They developed a so-called beauty index, which analyzes how strongly terms like "beautiful" or "pretty" are associated with positive characteristics such as "successful" or "trustworthy." The result: While the so-called beauty bonus is a global phenomenon, it is not a universal truth.

In Western European countries such as France, Italy, and Finland, a clear pattern emerges: beauty is associated with competence, intelligence, or trustworthiness. Attractiveness is thus equated with performance and success.

But in Romania or Vietnam, for example, attractiveness is much less often associated with such positive characteristics – sometimes even with negatively charged terms such as incompetence, mistrust and failure.

However, the study suggests that why beauty is important in some cultures and not in others remains unclear. Evolutionary advantages may play a role. However, it is clear that if attractiveness is perceived differently depending on the culture, this has an impact on the distribution of opportunities, professional success, and social recognition. And, according to the study, it could be an underestimated factor in social power structures in some places.