Living: Unplain Jane

Is beauty a beastly burden?

Welcome news for plain Janes: stunning appearance may not be a very valuable sexual asset. In fact, according to a University of Rochester study, beauty may not be a help at all.

Probing the social lives of 35 male and 36 female freshmen at the upstate New York school, Social Psychologists Harry Reis and Ladd Wheeler of Rochester and John Nezlek of William and Mary found that physical attractiveness is a great advantage to men, but not to women. The beautiful and the plain spend about the same amount of time with men and report the same amount...

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