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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Do looks really matter?

I have move my blog to www.spotalks.com


I came across this fantastic article in “The New York Times” whether looks do matter in becoming successful in life. The article convincing says that looks do matter in landing a plump opportunity in career or social life. I also agree with the article on the major perceptive. Excerpts from the article


On a very basic level, judging people by appearance means putting them quickly into impersonal categories, much like deciding whether an animal is a dog or a cat. “Stereotypes are seen as a necessary mechanism for making sense of information,” said David Amodio, an assistant professor of psychology at New York University. “If we look at a chair, we can categorize it quickly even though there are many different kinds of chairs out there.”


If we step out of our home and observe the world outside, we find most of the successful people who are interviewed or celebrated are tend to be good looking. So what makes these good looking people successful? It seems good looking tend to gregarious because even if they don’t want to mingle around with others but people around them usually recognize their appearance and give space for their actions. It obviously true in any case, we always wanted to speak to good looking people get others attraction or people usually tend not to dislike handsome or beautiful people’s attitudes.


An example to elaborate on this point, assuming that kollywood hero “Kamal Hasan” and comedian “Vadivelu” are not celebrities. If these two people are also part of a five member group and this group now actually brain storming on some project. It is for sure in majority of the case that handsome Kamal will get more attention on his point or witty jokes than our real joker Vadivelu. Sad right! This is how the world works and we have to live with the stereotypes.


The debate of stereotypes became very popular after not so good looking and 47 year old “Susan Boyle” won millions of hearts in singing “I dreamed a dream” in Britain’s got talent. When she first appeared on the stage our famous judge Simon Cowell showed some bad grimaces for her age and aspirations and also the entire crowd was cynical of her ability. But she defied all the cynicism and emerged as one of the best singers ever sang in the Britain’s got talent. Yup! People overlook the hidden talent. I have posted the youtube video link (Since embed code is not available) also for reference.


It was a lesson learnt for millions of people who watched the video on youtube that sometimes we do need to break our stereotypes and gauge people based on their talent. Even there was some kind of cynicism and stereotypes attached when president Obama started his campaign to the white house. We all knew how well he was able to flare. I want to learn his skills of defying the stereotypes. Is anybody in my boat too?


NYT article :

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/fashion/26looks.html?scp=7&sq=susan%20boyle&st=cse

Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

5 comments:

Kitty said...

Well I am in :p

BTW where did u read abt the Britain singing thing? U have made a good research, haven't u?

sat said...

@Kitty

Yes buddy! I did research on many things but NYT is a good read. I first watched the video on youtube and felt yucky on people who were cynical of her (Susan Boyle). Anyway, we can't blame 100% of the audience because almost everyone was skeptical before she performed.

Anniyan said...

Delicate issue... very well handled sathya!! keep ur good work going. But it is not that "not so good looking" are nt paid due attention. True talent does pay off.. not everytime though.. :).

Alagappan said...

true talent does pay off who ever it is.. and i would say the kamal of the past years was handsome.. kamal - now looks too old fat and arrogant.. :P

sat said...

@Alagappan
Yup everyone knows true talent pays off but irony is if ur less talented but handsome or beautiful than more talented (less beautiful or handsome). The probability of former winning the latter is more according to research.