University of Pavia, Department of Political and Social Sciences, Italy.
Econ Hum Biol. 2022 Aug;46:101145. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2022.101145. Epub 2022 May 11.
Using unique German survey data, we show that beauty is associated with lower support for redistribution and that attractive individuals are more likely to believe that economic success depends more on individual effort rather than external circumstances. These results are consistent with voting behavior, as we find that beauty correlates with voting for the Free Democratic Party (FDP), which historically advocates a low level of taxation. These associations do not differ by gender and remain also if household income and employment status are controlled for, suggesting that the relationship between attractiveness and political preferences is not fully explained by the beauty premium in the labor market. We test alternative channels that might drive our results, but the correlation between attractiveness and preferences for redistribution always persists. We suggest that our results might be explained by the way in which attractive individuals rationalize the advantages they get thanks to their beauty.
利用独特的德国调查数据，我们表明美丽与较低的再分配支持度相关联，而且有吸引力的个体更有可能相信经济成功更多地取决于个人努力而不是外部环境。这些结果与投票行为一致，因为我们发现美丽与投票给自由民主党（FDP）相关联，FDP 历史上主张低税收。这些关联不因性别而异，即使控制了家庭收入和就业状况也是如此，这表明吸引力和政治偏好之间的关系不能完全用劳动力市场上的美貌溢价来解释。我们测试了可能导致我们结果的其他渠道，但吸引力和再分配偏好之间的相关性始终存在。我们认为，我们的结果可能可以用有吸引力的个人通过他们的美丽来合理化他们所获得的优势的方式来解释。
