It’s not enough to be tall and beautiful anymore.
A new study shows what matters is how much taller and more beautiful you are.

We all know that beautiful, tall people have more advantages in life than homely ones, unless you’re a woman being
interviewed by another woman, in which case, you should play down your
attractiveness because she will HATE YOU.

But what happens when everyone is tall and
beautiful? Then what? Then you have to be even taller and even more beautiful.
The ratio of height and pulchritude to others‘
portly homeliness is what matters, according to a
recent study.

The New York Times reports that in a new paper,
economist Daniel S. Hamermesh of the University of Texas, author of “Beauty
Pays,” argues that merely being better looking than others in a competitive
situation does not necessarily give much of an advantage. It depends on how much better looking you are than
the others in the competition.

Hamermesh’s analyzed data collected from a
door-to-door charity solicitation, a Dutch television game show and nearly four
decades of American Economic Association elections for executive office. Who
knew that last was such a fierce beauty contest?

He concluded that those with higher beauty
ratings received more donations, were less likely to be kicked off the show
during an elimination round, and were more likely to win the elections.

He also found that the more extreme the
difference between the best and the worst looking, the greater the advantage of
the fetching.

Hamermesh, who spends two months of the year in
the Netherlands, also looked at height and earning power. The Dutch breed the
world’s tallest people, on average, so it was a good place to do his research.
He found that the relationship between height and earnings holds even as the
whole population grows taller.

So, being six foot two is only advantageous if
everyone else is five foot seven.

All this might go some way towards explaining
the plastic surgery boom in Hollywood and those places where the Real Housewives of Wherever come from,
where everyone is trying to gain an edge and as a result looks like Mrs Potato
Head in a class 3 hurricane.

But the takeaway, as far as I see it, is wear
higher heels. You could also put lifts in your shoes or try stilts. Don’t say I
never gave you any advice.