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Don’t Sit Next to the Fat Kid
Some day, your kids are going to get some friends. You better hope they pick good-looking, popular ones. Otherwise, they are doomed. A little. Check out this bit about from the Washington Post:
Social psychologist Michelle Hebl of Rice University … had volunteers evaluate a mock job applicant. Some volunteers saw the applicant sitting in a waiting room next to an overweight person, while others saw the applicant in the waiting room sitting next to a person of average weight. … Remarkably, Hebl found that volunteers rated job applicants more negatively when they had been seen seated next to an overweight person than when they were seen seated next to an average weight person.
This has pretty profound implications for the whole parenting enterprise. We like to tell our kids that these kinds of things don;t matter. “Come on, Junior. I know Jimmy next door is kind of dorky. But you have to be nice to him. What matters is his inner beauty. And yours.” Later, we tell Junior: “Sorry about that fancy prep school. It just costs too much. What really matters is buckling down and getting good grades no matter where you go to school.”
Except… er… no.
(Hat tip to Overcoming Bias.)
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Offsprung Columns
How strange! I wonder if this is based on some inner criticism that the applicant didn't automatically reject the less-than-perfect person themselves, and is therefore inferior?