Unexpected Benefits of Cosmetic Surgery

Today’s post is for anyone who has ever considered cosmetic enhancement and been told that the quest for looking and feeling your best makes you shallow, self-absorbed or vain. I’m here to tell you they’re wrong! As a facial plastic surgeon, I strive to bring out the best in my patients. One thing of which I’m keenly aware is that a physical transformation, particularly to a patient’s face, will have an emotional impact as well.

Looks Matter

Looks are only one of many things that affect how much we earn, including education, age, health, company size and so on, but looks do matter. An article published by Business Insider Australia reports,

“Life really is easier for attractive people. They make more money, get promoted faster, and many times are simply more successful.” 

Dr Gundi Knies, researcher at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, found, “facial attractiveness is as important in determining people’s occupational prestige at the beginning of the career as it is in the middle or at the end of the career.” In other words, he continues, “the so-called beauty premium is stable throughout people’s employment history, and pretty people are doing better even as they age.”

4 Positive Attributes Attributed to “Beautiful People”

Why are we attracted to beauty? What do beautiful people have that others don’t? Here’s a short list of some common attitudes regarding beauty:

1. Beautiful People Look Mate-Worthy – Men seek attractive women as mates because good looks signal youth, health, and reproductive fitness. Women seek attractive men for the same reason.

2. Beautiful People Are Perceived as Smarter – University of New Mexico researchers found that general intelligence is positively linked to body symmetry.

3. Beautiful People Have an “Edge” – Attractive people are more persuasive, in part because they also possess or develop key personality traits — like intelligence and strong social skills — that make them more effective communicators.

4. Beautiful People Are Seen as More Likeable and Trustworthy – In a study from Harvard University, researchers found that wearing makeup, shown to enhance a woman’s attractiveness, boosted people’s perceptions of that subject’s competence, likability, attractiveness, and trustworthiness.

Looks Aren’t ALL that Matters

Daniel Hamermesh, an economics professor and author of the book “Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful” believes that attractive people tend to have desirable personality traits, like higher self-confidence, that appeal to employers.

“Beauty may just reflect self-esteem,” writes Dammermesh. “Perhaps people’s self-confidence manifests itself in their behaviour, so that their looks are rated more highly, and their self-esteem makes them more desirable and higher-paid employees,” he writes. “Another possibility is that beauty and the attractiveness of one’s personality are positively related, and that it is the general sparkle of one’s personality, not one’s beauty, that increases earnings.”

What Do YOU Want?

I’ve written many times that I don’t believe there is such a thing as ideal beauty. Each of us is uniquely beautiful. I do, however, believe that we each have a personal best – physically and mentally – and when we achieve it, we are more joyful, more powerful, and more successful in everything we do.

My hope as a facial plastic surgeon in Bondi Junction is to help people make changes in their faces that will allow them to change the way they think about themselves. Why?  Because a positive self-image can help you go far in life.

Let Us Tell You More

If you have questions about anything mentioned in this post, please contact us on 1300 555 095. You can also use email us or use the ‘book consultation’ feature of this website to make an appointment. It would be wonderful to hear from you.