Why Being Attractive Makes Men Happier Than Women
A new study investigated attractiveness and life satisfaction in both genders.
Posted March 7, 2026 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma
Several psychology studies have found that, on average, attractive people are happier with their lives than other people.
However, there are many different ways to measure attractiveness in research. On the one hand, people can be asked whether they subjectively perceive themselves as being attractive, and it could be argued that those people who perceive themselves as attractive are happier than those who perceive themselves as unattractive. On the other hand, scientists could ask external raters to objectively determine the attractiveness of people. This would then be more in line with how society perceives a person's attractiveness and not how they view themselves. What is not clear: To what extent individual differences between people affect the association between being attractive and being happy. For example, as there are different societal beauty standards and expectations towards men and women, gender may be a factor that influences the association between attractiveness and happiness .
A new study on attractiveness, happiness, and gender
A new study from the Czech Academy of Sciences investigated the role of objective and subjective dimensions of beauty, and other factors of life satisfaction ( Smith and Hamplová, 2026 ). In the study entitled “How Beauty Impacts Life Satisfaction: Objective, Subjective, and Mediating Effects,” the scientists analyzed data from the program for the international assessment of adult competencies (PIAAC) collected in the Czech Republic. Overall, data from 2200 volunteers between the ages of 16 and 60 were included in the study. Each volunteer used three questions to rate their attractiveness subjectively. Moreover, external raters performed an objective attractiveness rating of a picture each volunteer had provided. In addition, the scientists collected data on volunteers’ gender, age, self-esteem , marriage status, job status, and personality .
Objectively attractive people are happier, but gender matters
What did the scientists find out? Using advanced statistical modelling, they found that the relationship between attractiveness and life satisfaction was different for men and women.
In a first analysis, without gender as a factor, they found that high objective attractiveness was linked to greater life satisfaction, replicating previous studies on attractiveness.
For men, there was a strong direct effect of objectively assessed attractiveness on life satisfaction. This effect was largely independent of other factors, such as their emotional status. Men who other people find attractive are more satisfied with their lives than other men. While emotional stability as a personality trait and self-esteem also played a role in life satisfaction, the direct effect of being attractive was the largest.
For women, the association was more complex. Remarkably, the direct effect of both objective and subjective attractiveness on life satisfaction did not reach statistical significance. Thus, being beautiful alone does not make women happier with their lives, unlike men. However, objective attractiveness had indirect effects on self-esteem and emotional stability, which in turn had positive effects on life satisfaction.
Interestingly, being beautiful also had a larger effect overall on life satisfaction in men compared with women.
The study showed that the general rule that more attractive people are happier with their lives is strongly modulated by gender. A strong and direct association between beauty and life satisfaction was only observed in men, but not in women. In women, emotional stability and self-esteem were more important for life satisfaction than the direct effect of attractiveness. This suggests that, especially for women, improving self-esteem and emotional resilience are key factors for a happy life, while focusing only on physical attractiveness may not be the best recipe for long-lasting happiness.
Facebook image: PeopleImages/Shutterstock
Smith, M.L., Hamplová, D. (2026). How Beauty Impacts Life Satisfaction: Objective, Subjective, and Mediating Effects. In: Kuipers, G., Sarpila, O. (eds) Handbook of Beauty and Inequality. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-08035-6_12
Share this post Facebook Bluesky Linkedin Email
There was a problem adding your email address. Please try again.
By submitting your information you agree to the Psychology Today Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy
Sebastian Ocklenburg, Ph.D., is a professor for research methods in psychology at the Department of Psychology at MSH Medical School in Hamburg, Germany. His research focuses on left-handedness and brain asymmetries.
Get the help you need from a therapist near you–a FREE service from Psychology Today.
This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.