As those who benefit from society’s halo effect, conventionally attractive people grow up operating within social dynamics that others don’t typically have to navigate on a day-to-day basis.
Casual interruption
Attractive people are used to living in a world that wants to hear what they have to say. While holding a conversation, attractive people will interrupt themselves or change the subject matter mid-sentence because they know the room will fall in line with their cue. They’re not often met with resistance or an awkward silence like most people would be.
Guarded solitude
Since they are relentlessly approached for random chitchat, unprovoked stares and judgments, and casual conversation, attractive people tend to develop extremely guarded public personas. They are experts at using an intentional, unapproachable resting face, wearing bulky headphones, and refusing to make eye contact in public just to get five seconds of sanity.
Compliment amnesia
It’s difficult for compliments about your appearance to mean much to you if you hear them several times a week. Good-looking people don’t perceive generic compliments as earth-shattering news. Much of the time, they’ll simply deflect your praise, wishing instead that you’d compliment them on their smarts, their wit, or their talents.
Over-evaluating motives
When a physically attractive person makes a new acquaintance or business connection, there’s usually one question that constantly lingers in their mind: Do they actually like me for me, or are they just attracted to my looks? They must work harder to weed out ulterior motives.
Effortless styling
Attractive people can wake up and throw on an oversized, crumpled vintage T-shirt and some basic sweatpants and be lauded for their carefree, effortless style. They have enough genetic equity to skip rigorous grooming and still have their laziness be perceived as an intentional haute couture.
Aggressive over-correction
In an effort to fight against the unjust stigma that pretty people can’t be smart or interesting, many attractive people overcompensate hugely at work. They might purposely dull themselves down, dress like sloppy intellectuals, or talk extraordinarily fast just so others will respect their intelligence.
Misinterpreting politeness
Due to service industry workers and civilians being friendlier, warmer, more patient, and extraordinarily nicer to attractive people, attractive people have a warped sense of normal human interaction. Normal, baseline customer service or kindness can be mistaken for blatant, aggressive flirting.
Intimidation blindness
Attractive people have no idea how afraid everyone is when they enter a room. They don’t understand why people avoid their eyes, don’t sit beside them on the bus, or are painfully stiff when meeting them, completely unaware that their symmetry is causing a wave of social intimidation.
Blind trust
Being raised in a world where strangers are friendlier, open doors for you, offer free upgrades, and give you the benefit of the doubt, you grow up extremely optimistic about people. Attractive people exude this naive, trusting nature about places that would be assumed dangerous by others.
Direct boundary-setting
Attractive people do not feel social pressure to people-please in order to be liked. Since their social currency is high, they can often be extremely comfortable saying a blunt, straightforward “no” to requests, shutting down conversations abruptly, or leaving situations that they don’t want to be in.
Overlooking chemistry
Occasionally, attractive people can experience something known as chemistry blindness. Since most of their initial relationships are built on heavy visual attraction, they learn to equate powerful sexual chemistry with long-term emotional compatibility. The result is repeated relationship train wrecks.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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