Students who are considered to be attractive are more likely to receive higher grades and go to college, according to a new study reported in Time.
The study — which comes from the Society for Research on Child Development — is based on an analysis of the GPAs and attractiveness of 9,000 adolescents, some of whom have been tracked since 1990, Time reports. A student's attractiveness was determined by an interviewer who met with each study participant.
"It's not exactly clear whether the attention and praise increased a child's confidence and hence he or she took extra credit classes and felt more emboldened to ask teachers for help, and that led to the higher grades, or whether teachers ... simply favor attractive faces more," according to Time.
Additionally, there does not seem to be a difference in the grades of average looking and unattractive students.
While a briefing on the study states that unattractive students may have "poorer mental health and fewer friends because of below average looks," they were also "less likely to be sexually active or involved in the heavy drinking party scene" — which, Times notes, may give them more time to study.
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