Is “pretty privilege” a “thing” on social media platforms?
Young women have shared videos discussing their “pretty privilege,” saying they’re showered with free gifts and attention simply for being really, really, really good-looking.
Source: Attractive women reveal benefits of ‘pretty privilege’
Long ago, I read Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers, where he highlights that different people have many kinds of privileges, without even realizing it.
If I remember correctly, to be great in sports – and have an opportunity to play professionally as an adult – you need to be born at a certain time of the year. Sounds crazy until you think about it … if you are born just after the age cut off to attend elementary school, you become almost one year older than other students in kindergarten once you do begin school. This one-year age advantage, particularly in sports, is detectable into college. Further, for activities like sports, this becomes a cutoff that has impacts on sports participation opportunities from the beginning – and this affects the individual in the long term.
There are oddities about the time of the year in which you were born – those born in March are more likely become career pilots! June is best to become a CEO or win a Nobel Prize. Those born in September are more likely to reach 100 years of age. There are differences in children born in the winter versus those born in the summer (those born in the winter months are more likely to have allergies – which could be due to the age at which they are first exposed to allergens). These associations sound random, but like the sports player example, there may be bona fide reasons for these associations – it might not be silly astrology.
Where you are born has benefits. It may not matter if you move later! There is a correlation between where you were born and future success.
The year you were born is very important – if you enter the job market in a recession, this can stunt your long-term career aspirations for years as you accept a less than desirable position to even have a job. It also affects your opportunity to take advantage of big trends – like say, the growth of tech in the 1980s. All of the early big tech stars (e.g. Microsoft, Apple and Sun founders, etc) were born at a similar time in the early 1950s. They came of age at just the right time to take advantage of these new opportunities.
Health privilege is obvious. As is growing up rich.
Your name is a privilege too – people with hard to pronounce names may have a difficult time advancing in their careers.
Your name also affects the grades you receive in school:
There are many other types of privilege. For example, there is “height privilege” – taller people are more likely to advance in leadership positions. 58% of male US CEOs are 6 feet or taller, yet only 15% of men in the U.S. are six feet or taller.
Another study found that every inch above average height added $789/year in income (as of 2004) with the greatest value going to those in management and sales. Women saw income of $4,200 less per year for each 4.6% increase in weight.
In other words, being tall and thin is a privilege.
That study also found that people rated attractive make more money over time. Those with more social contacts are viewed more positively (attractive people may have more social contacts). Other funny observations – smile, wear bright colors, and have a dog – people with dogs are more likely to make social contacts even if not judged attractive.
Being male or female bestows privilege in differing contexts; being a minority can be a disadvantage or a privilege depending on context.
A study in Australia found that women with blonde hair (real or dyed) earned 7% more than brunette women, and this extended to their male partners who also earned more than males whose partners were brunette. (This may not apply to other societies, but the pattern has been found in other studies.) On the flip side, some women moving upwards dye naturally blonde hair to dark colors to “look more professional”. This is thought related to stereotypes about how we think people are supposed to look in some fields, and this varies by age. This points to hair color (which is now change-able) as being a privilege. And while it is not a career advantage, blue-eyed men (about 8% of the world’s population has blue eyes) are more likely to be married.
These patterns have also been seen in research on restaurants and wait staff:
… research shows that more attractive waitresses get higher tips than less attractive waitresses, regardless of the level of service.
- Waitresses with larger breasts get higher tips.
- Waitresses with blond hair get higher tips.
- Tips increase as a waitress’ body size decreases.
- Waitresses who wear makeup receive higher tips from male customers but not from female customers.
Per that story, attractiveness of male servers had no effect on tip sizes, thus there may be a privilege bias that works to the advantage of female wait staff. Restaurant tipping is an entire subject unto itself – wait staff at high end restaurants are more likely to be male, while wait staff at low end and casual restaurants are more likely to be female.
On some social media platforms, up to 75% of posts are from women, typically selfies, typically headshots with eye contact. Guys more commonly have full body photos or group photos and are more likely to lack eye contact with the viewer.
This leads to the observation that highly visual social media platforms – notably Instagram and TikTok have “pretty privilege”. It is said that TikTok videos have about 2 seconds with which to hook the viewer. Having a pretty person with direct eye contact is a powerful hook.
Six Tips to Get Higher Tips | Psychology Today
Some social media platforms intentionally demoted viewership of those judged overweight, too thin, or too old:
Leaked documents have suggested that TikTok has policies limiting the exposure of content creators based on their physical appearances and the quality of their surroundings.
The physical appearances ‘flagged’ include: ‘“abnormal body shape,” being “chubby,” “obese,” or “too thin,” missing teeth, the presence of “obvious facial scars” and being an older person with “too many wrinkles”’ (Yahoo 2020).
In fact, Tiktok’s internal documents said they were to “suppress posts by ‘Ugly’ people and the poor”.
Their internal documents said those who posted undesirable content should be punished by discouraging views of all their videos.
These policies were in effect through at least 2019. We know that early platform adopters are the ones most likely to achieve longer term platform success. This means less attractive early adopters were hindered from the very beginning. Even if Tiktok removed these policies later, they permanently harmed the ability of those who did not meet the “pretty privilege” standards to achieve success. It is much harder to obtain online success once a platform is saturated with content producers.
Last winter, I searched Youtube for videos about “study abroad”. Based on a sample of over 100 videos returned from Youtube’s search, at the time, just 8% of videos appeared to be from males, and the rest were from females[1]. About 2/3ds to 3/4s of study abroad students are female (little known fact – women have been a majority of college graduates in the U.S. for decades), and with up to 75% of social media posts coming from women, it is not a surprise that most study abroad videos are from young women, typically attractive.
([1] I redid this survey in November of 2022 and just 4% of videos were from males and the rest from females).
And sometimes, even the pretty privileged social media influencers point out they are pretty and more important: TikToker caught cutting line at Nashville event, claims she can because she’s ‘beautiful’ and has ‘70,000 followers’ (yahoo.com)
Attractive people are usually more desirable to employers as they appear to have other attributes that may appeal to employers. The “attractiveness privilege” appears to take hold within seconds of first contact. Attractiveness privilege can have benefits that start young and continue into adulthood by conveying benefits early that last a long time. It may result in increased confidence or other attributes, such as extroversion, that can be seen as a positive for many jobs. It can affect who becomes your social partners and mentors, long term, as well. A side effect of this observation is that some hire a professional photographer for their LinkedIn profile photo. Indeed, some professional workers today hire professional consultants to advice on all aspects of appearance including wardrobe and hair style and color.
‘Pretty privilege’: Attractive people considered more trustworthy, research confirms (msn.com):
In today’s fiercely competitive job market, the economic advantages of beauty are undeniable. Numerous studies have shown that attractive individuals benefit from a beauty bonus and earn higher salaries on average. Certain high-paying professions are built around beauty (such as show business) but what is more surprising is that for almost any kind of employment, beauty can lead to a positive halo effect. Beautiful individuals are consistently expected to be more intelligent and thought to be better leaders, which influences career trajectories and opportunities.
What’s more, winners of the genetic lottery go on to enjoy numerous benefits as they move through life. Beautiful people are more persuasive, have more sexual and romantic partners, seem more trustworthy, and make more money — approximately 12% more, in fact.
Pretty Waitresses Earn Bigger Tips — From Women (businessinsider.com)
Is pretty privilege a thing? Seems logical it would be. Does it benefit females more than attractive males? Does the visual focus of IG and TikTok favor attractive women over attractive men?
There is a concern that social media recommendation algorithms are biased towards pretty people. The algorithms figure out what leads to more views – and if people are watching or following attractive people, the algorithm notices this attribute and then reinforces it by increasingly recommending photos or videos featuring attractive people.
How to Be Successful on Social Media
To be successful on social it helps to fall into a few categories, and preferably all of them together:
- Be attractive
- Show wealth (even if you are not wealthy)
- Be unique
Thus, we have examples of young attractive people with travel videos (illustrating wealth), or young attractive people “homesteading” in Alaska or the north (being unique). I found many successful social media accounts fit these simple metrics. Sure, there are some that do not fit the profile – but it seems that young/attractive, implying wealth and uniqueness are key attributes for many in social media success.
UPDATES
More here: A unique take on “Pretty Privilege” – which explains much about Instagram – Social Panic
And:
Two influencers say they were denied entry to a club because of their size (nbcnews.com)
Related to that last item, one of my daughters, and a former college flat mate of hers from Europe, were walking down a street in Las Vegas when they were intentionally invited into a club and offered free drinks, a show, and food – just to occupy a table. Why? Because they are attractive. The proprietor knew that having attractive people – typically young women – sit in prominent locations was a key to attracting attention and clients to the club. It’s called pretty privilege.