Do good-looking people enjoy an unfair advantage over their plainer peers? Yes, of course. So, too, does anyone who is smarter, stronger, healthier and happier than the average. These facts are so self-evident they scarcely need to be enunciated, so why has Nancy Etcoff devoted 325 pages (no less than 22 of them given over to a daunting and densely-printed bibliography) explaining that prettiness pays dividends? It is clear from the start she has doubts about the validity of her subject and rushes to anticipate any criticism with pronouncements such as "many intellectuals would have us believe beauty is inconsequential." Really, the person who could propose that hardly ought to be considered intelligent, let alone intellectual. Beauty may be many things - shallow, transient, inequitable - but it always bestows consequences, beneficial or otherwise.
Not the least of these is that the possessor of beauty will be feted for his or her appearance, irrespective of personal character. While beauty has ceased to be regarded as truth made manifest, somehow it still seems to be a first cousin of goodness. "What is beautiful is good," wrote Sappho, "and what is good will soon be beautiful." Despite this pronouncement's inherent illogicality, beauty is often perceived to bestow moral advantages on its possessor. As Etcoff notes, there are also more tangible merits to being beautiful. In one American survey, two women stood by a car with a flat tyre; oddly enough, the better-looking one was rescued first. A 1979 study on attitudes in the workplace found good-looking people are more likely to be hired and rewarded with the better salaries. However, they are also likely to face certain drawbacks - attractive women, for example, will probably not be given powerful managerial positions because they are thought "too feminine" to perform effectively in a high-powered job.
In essence, according to Etcoff, the explanation for this simultaneous worship and denigration of beauty lies in its original purpose - to attract a mate. We know why physical beauty is so desirable and accordingly despise it and ourselves. Ongoing scientific advances are liable to increase the confusion as age no longer necessarily restricts fertility. "Men are automatically excited by signs of a woman who is fertile, healthy, and hasn't been pregnant before," but this is because they remain loyal to an outdated biological programme.
Beauty, as evidenced by healthy hair and skin, a firm body and even features, is believed to be best for reproduction. As model Lauren Hutton remarked: "As soon as they were out of eggs, women were out of business." This is why beauty and youth - like beauty and truth - are so often found sharing the same platform.
It is also one of the many reasons why older and richer men are so frequently found married to younger and better-looking women. Etcoff quotes Ovid to show this is no contemporary phenomenon: "Girls praise a poem, but go for expensive presents. Any illiterate oaf can catch their eye provided he's rich." Etcoff also repeats Naomi Wolf's dictum that "beauty is a currency system like the gold standard." This has been so since time immemorial, even though the standard itself changes regularly. Before the present century, for example, pale skin was prized because it indicated the possessor did not engage in open-air manual labour; tanned flesh subsequently became desirable when it provided evidence of leisure holidays and, therefore, wealth.
But, also like money, beauty is no guarantee of happiness. A 1995 exploration of the subject by two psychologists suggested that happiness had more to do with personal qualities such as optimism and a sense of personal control and self-esteem than appearance. Rather like the rich constantly wishing to be richer, so the beautiful always believe they could be even better-looking. Hence the emergence of plastic surgery junkies forever going back for another fix.
And what, in the end, are the rewards for a lifetime devoted to beauty? As the late American socialite Gloria Guinness commented in her old age, you spend decades taking care of your appearance "and then some beautiful sixteen-year old with long blonde hair comes along and all you feel like doing is hiding in the corner." Beauty is a mixed blessing - and that's the plain truth.
Robert O'Byrne is an Irish Times journalist