When Does Beauty Pay? A Large-Scale Image-Based Appearance Analysis on Career Transitions.

This article investigates the long-term impact of facial attractiveness on the career outcomes of over 40,000 MBA graduates from the top 100 U.S. MBA programs between 1990 and 2015. Using advanced machine learning and generative AI techniques to rate attractiveness and rank job desirability, the study finds that attractive MBA graduates earn an average yearly premium of $2,508, corresponding to a 2.4% higher job rank over 15 years compared to plain-looking peers, with an even larger premium for the top 10% most attractive individuals. The attractiveness premium persists consistently throughout the career and is more pronounced among graduates with arts undergraduate degrees, those in managerial roles, and non-IT industries, suggesting a role for social interaction in amplifying this bias. The study employs propensity score matching to control for confounding factors such as demographics, education, and job characteristics, concluding that attractiveness bias is comparable in magnitude to gender bias and warrants similar policy attention in labor markets.