Barking up the wrong tree

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we investigate whether certain aspects of personal appearance (i.e., physical attractiveness, personality, and grooming) affect a student's cumulative grade point average (GPA) in high school. When physical attractiveness is entered into the model as the only measure of personal appearance (as has been done in previous studies), it has a positive and statistically significant impact on GPA for female students and a positive yet not statistically significant effect for male students. Including personality and grooming, the effect of physical attractiveness turns negative for both groups, but is only statistically significant for males. For male and female students, being very well groomed is associated with a statistically significant GPA premium. While grooming has the largest effect on GPA for male students, having a very attractive personality is most important for female students. Numerous sensitivity analyses support the core results for grooming and personality. Possible explanations for these findings include teacher discrimination, differences in student objectives, and rational resource allocation decisions.

Source: "Effects of physical attractiveness, personality, and grooming on academic performance in high school" from Labour Economics, Volume 16, Issue 4, August 2009, Pages 373-382

Thoughts? Well-groomed in young males may indicate personality elements connected to high grades. And being a frequently unkempt male myself, I know how rare well-groomed males can be in high school.

A great movie about high school.

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How hard is it for men to *not* stare at attractive women?

Does an attractive face mean an attractive body?

Does makeup really make a woman more attractive to men?