Good news for those with some junk in the trunk (or some junk in the mid-section) who are looking for love.
Apparently looks aren’t everything. Well, they’re almost everything, but according to a new study, if you make more money or have a better education, you have a better chance at finding a relationship.
Columbia University economist Pierre-Andre Chiappori and fellow researchers found that although looks are key in first impressions, men with a higher income and women with a higher education have a better chance at finding love, even if they are overweight.
In the study “Fatter Attraction: Anthropometric and Socioeconomic Matching on the Marriage Market,” Chiappori weighs a person’s ability to find love as if they’re simply numbers in the stock market. A percentage here, a percentage there and a man or woman becomes a safer gamble.
The Huffington Post reports that for men with a 10 percent increase in their Body Mass Index, the extra weight can be reconciled by a 3 percent increase in income.
The study states that, “Similarly for women, an additional year (of education) may compensate up to three BMI units,” leading me to feel that maybe I was wrong about our society.
Perhaps the ability to look past outward appearance and appreciate someone’s hard work in school or in the office shows us something about the new focus of values in our society. Maybe we’re not all that superficial.
If we continue to place value on qualities besides outward appearance, eventually we might find that it becomes less of an issue in relationships. I’m not going to pretend first impressions are blind.
Looking at two men, I don’t have the ability to see what’s in their wallet or how intelligent they are; the outward appearance is how we first make judgments.
Yes, the study shows that we qualify ourselves. We will fall in love with a person who isn’t conventionally attractive if they have money or if they’re well educated.
The depressing underlying message, that love is hard to find if you’re overweight and don’t have a good job or education, seems to serve as an even more negative message.
It really isn’t about creativity, humor or other wonderful personality traits, no matter how much we tell ourselves it is. From your career to your love life, appearance and your bank account or degree mean everything.
A hilarious joke is meaningless unless you’ve got the money to back it up.
Reach the columnist at tafergu1@asu.edu Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
