Grades might not be the only thing that marks your teen’s intelligence, suggest several studies. A study shows that good looks are often mistaken for intelligence. The best looking student, a prom queen or king for instance, is more likely to get higher grades at school rather than an average-looking girl with braces. Good-looking people have a better chance of graduating from college. Educators consider them to be more competent and this bias helps them achieve a better grade at school and college.

Good looks help

A research report by "In School, Good Looks Help and Good Looks Hurt (But They Mostly Help)” says most attractive students are rated higher at school and other evaluation platforms for their intelligence, personality and potential for success. The reason? Just because they are considered to be looking better than average by other people.

Surprisingly, the good-looking theory goes far. GPA variations in attractive people and those with average looks is similar to those of students raised in a co-parent environment and one brought up in single parent families. Looks matter a lot when it comes to success and competence of a person.

Rachel Gordon and Robert Crosnoe, the authors of the research mentioned above might have frosted you with their findings but wait for this. Better-looking kids might get away with better grades at high school and college but the effects last longer. When teens realize that their looks (or a lack of them thereof) have an influence on their grades, they experience a cumulative loss of self-esteem and may linger on during one’s whole life.

Beauty fades

Good looks might not be able to help you all through your academic career, suggest the authors of the study. Attractive boys and girls are more likely to date and drink more as compared to average looking people. This can have a negative effect on their grades at college and high school.

The lucky DNA has more advantages than you think

It’s not just the grades that are affected by a student’s looks. Attractive people are considered to be more warm and sensitive by their peers and teachers giving them a boost in their social life. Every benefit that a student gets due to his beauty gives his or her self-confidence an upward push. This is going to be helpful later on in life.

Those who are less lucky

As parents you would know the sense of depression and worthlessness. A lot of negative feelings like this arise when less attractive students realize that they are being judged in classrooms on the basis of their grades. It might frost parents to think that this biasness on the basis of looks may have a lifetime effect making a person feeling inferior, awkward and unlovable.

Rethinking our biases

Time and again, researches have proved with statistics how destructive depression and bullying can be. It is important that we reframe our opinions and biases towards people who have mental or physical deformities.

While it is hard to mold the opinion of other people about someone’s physical appearance, as responsible parents, we can make sure that our teen’s teachers are free of biases when they grade students.