Mirror Miracle We are all more obsessed with our appearance than we like to admit. Concern about appearance is quite normal and understandable. Attractive people have distinct advantages in our society. Studies show: * Attractive children are more popular, both with classmates and teachers. Teachers give higher evaluations to the work of attractive children and have higher expectations of them. * Attractive applicants have a better chance of getting jobs, and of receiving higher salaries. One US study found that taller men earned around $600 per inch more than shorter executives a month. In court, attractive people are found guilty less often. When found guilty, they receive less severe sentences. We also believe in the "What is beautiful is good" stereotype -- a deep-rooted belief that physically attractive people possess other desirable characteristics such as intelligence, competence, social skills and confidence -- even moral virtue. The good fairy princess is always beautiful; the wicked stepmother is always ugly. It is not surprising that physical attractiveness is of overwhelming importance to us.

Every period of history has its own standards of what is beautiful, and every contemporary society has its own distinctive concept of the ideal physical features. In the 19th century being beautiful meant wearing a corset -- causing breathing problems. Now we try to diet and exercise ourselves into the fashionable shape -- often wit even more serious consequences. But although we resemble our ancestors in our concern about appearance, there is a difference in the degree of concern. Advances in technology and in particular the rise of the mass media have caused normal concerns about how we look to become obsessions. How? There are 3 reasons: * Thanks to media, we've become accustomed to extremely rigid and uniform standards of beauty. * TV, billboards and magazines mean that we see "beautiful people" all the time, more often than our own family members, making exceptional good looks seem real, normal and attainable. * Standards of beauty have become harder and harder to attain. The media ideal of thinness for women is achievable by less than 5% of the female population. Even attractive people may not be looking in the mirror out of vanity, but out of insecurity. We forget that there were disadvantages to being attractive: attractive people are under much greater pressure to maintain appearance.