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pnrjulius comments on The Halo Effect - Less Wrong
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I wonder if this also depends a bit on context:
I remember when studying mathematics, that almost all professors and most of the good students where weird in several ways: the way they dressed, the way they spoke, the way they behaved etc... It seemed that the greater the genius the weirder his behavior.
Now I wonder if the bias in these academic settings could be the other way round: if you look like a normal person you will stand out and everyone will think: this is probably not one of the brighter guys. On the other hand if your last haircut was 2 years ago and you are always wearing the same jacket everyone will say: wow this guy must be one of the geniuses here.
What do you think?
I think it's more this effect: The people doing the hiring WANT you to be pretty, but they also want you to be brilliant.
If you are pretty enough, you can get in without being too brilliant; or if you are brilliant enough, you can get in without being too pretty.
Ideally, you would be both (i.e. you would be Richard Feynman); but you've got to have one or the other, or nobody will hire you.
Hence, our sample will consist of A: Pretty people who aren't that brilliant P(P&~B) B: Brilliant people who are not pretty P(~P&B) C: Pretty people who are also brilliant P(P&B)
If we presume merely that prettiness isn't strongly correlated with brilliance and both are relatively rare, then we will find exactly what we see: The brilliant ones who get hired are also mostly not pretty.