When Beauty Bites

Celebrity smiles, shots of fashion models, and ads for everything from teeth whitening to weight loss bombard us with the message that beautiful is better. But research shows that if you want to be perceived as talented, helpful, and approachable, there are some real downsides to being stunning.

Highly attractive people are thought to be less likely to help others than are moderately attractive people, finds a study in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. These stereotypes may bear some truth: On average, "highly attractive women have reported more focus on self-promotion than on concern for others," notes Donald Sacco, a psychologist at the University of Southern Mississippi.

The presence of a highly attractive person can make others around them feel worse. A study in the International Journal of Psychology found that women feel better about their bodies after exposure to someone unattractive and palpably worse after encountering a beauty. Other studies show a bias against attractive job applicants among people of the same sex who were asked to act as recruiters.

Members of your sex will hold your looks against you if you are attractive and successful, according to work by German psychologists. If you are accomplished and unattractive, they found, heterosexual people of your sex tend to attribute your success to innate talent. If you are good-looking, however—a sexual competitor— they will more likely chalk your achievements up to luck.