Ugly Children May Get Parental Short Shrift

[Guest Chaney]

It's...SCIENCE!

I'd be especially interested to hear from this board's uglier members on whether or not they feel what follows is true.

May 3, 2005

Ugly Children May Get Parental Short Shrift

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR - The New York Times

Parents would certainly deny it, but Canadian researchers have made a startling assertion: parents take better care of pretty children than they do ugly ones.

Researchers at the University of Alberta carefully observed how parents treated their children during trips to the supermarket. They found that physical attractiveness made a big difference.

The researchers noted if the parents belted their youngsters into the grocery cart seat, how often the parents' attention lapsed and the number of times the children were allowed to engage in potentially dangerous activities like standing up in the shopping cart. They also rated each child's physical attractiveness on a 10-point scale.

The findings, not yet published, were presented at the Warren E. Kalbach Population Conference in Edmonton, Alberta.

When it came to buckling up, pretty and ugly children were treated in starkly different ways, with seat belt use increasing in direct proportion to attractiveness. When a woman was in charge, 4 percent of the homeliest children were strapped in compared with 13.3 percent of the most attractive children. The difference was even more acute when fathers led the shopping expedition - in those cases, none of the least attractive children were secured with seat belts, while 12.5 percent of the prettiest children were.

Homely children were also more often out of sight of their parents, and they were more often allowed to wander more than 10 feet away.

Age - of parent and child - also played a role. Younger adults were more likely to buckle their children into the seat, and younger children were more often buckled in. Older adults, in contrast, were inclined to let children wander out of sight and more likely to allow them to engage in physically dangerous activities.

Although the researchers were unsure why, good-looking boys were usually kept in closer proximity to the adults taking care of them than were pretty girls. The researchers speculated that girls might be considered more competent and better able to act independently than boys of the same age. The researchers made more than 400 observations of child-parent interactions in 14 supermarkets.

Dr. W. Andrew Harrell, executive director of the Population Research Laboratory at the University of Alberta and the leader of the research team, sees an evolutionary reason for the findings: pretty children, he says, represent the best genetic legacy, and therefore they get more care.

Not all experts agree. Dr. Frans de Waal, a professor of psychology at Emory University, said he was skeptical.

"The question," he said, "is whether ugly people have fewer offspring than handsome people. I doubt it very much. If the number of offspring are the same for these two categories, there's absolutely no evolutionary reason for parents to invest less in ugly kids."

Dr. Robert Sternberg, professor of psychology and education at Yale, said he saw problems in Dr. Harrell's method and conclusions, for example, not considering socioeconomic status.

"Wealthier parents can feed, clothe and take care of their children better due to greater resources," Dr. Sternberg said, possibly making them more attractive. "The link to evolutionary theory is speculative."

But Dr. Harrell said the importance of physical attractiveness "cuts across social class, income and education."

"Like lots of animals, we tend to parcel out our resources on the basis of value," he said. "Maybe we can't always articulate that, but in fact we do it. There are a lot of things that make a person more valuable, and physical attractiveness may be one of them."

[Jim Alfredson]

So is this why I was routinely hidden in the cellar when anyone came over? I thought every parent did that to the middle child?

[Brownian Motion]

It makes perfect sense from a Darwinian perspective.

To the tune of "You're Some Pretty Doll".

You're so ugly, oh! so ugly

You're some ugly chile

The clothes that you wear are not in style

You look like an ape every time you smile

Oh how I hate you, you aligator bait you

why don't you lay down and die?

You're knock-kneed pigeon-toed box-ankled too

there's a curse on your family and it fell on you

Your teeth are yeller, who's your feller?

You're some ugly chile.

Words and music apparently by Clarence Williams.

[Hardbopjazz]

That's just totally wrong.

[Claude]

Homely children were also more often out of sight of their parents, and they were more often allowed to wander more than 10 feet away.

(...)

good-looking boys were usually kept in closer proximity to the adults taking care of them than were pretty girls. The researchers speculated that girls might be considered more competent and better able to act independently than boys of the same age.

No surprise this ugly boy became financially independent so quickly:

Edited May 3, 2005 by Claude

[AllenLowe]

my mother always told me, never take candy from strangers unless they also offer you a ride -

[Jazzmoose]

And mine told me to go play in the street. There you have it!

[DTMX]

My mother used to complement me by saying, "At least you're smart."*

* Actually, it was "At least you're not stupid" but I'm trying to put a positive spin on it.

[RDK]

Attractive children get treated no differently than pretty women or handsome men. I'm surprised it took a research study to verify this...

[RDK]

On the other hand...

If you wanna be happy

For the rest of your life,

Never make a pretty woman your wife,

So from my personal point of view,

Get an ugly girl to marry you.

A pretty woman makes her husband look small

And very often causes his downfall.

As soon as he marries her

Then she starts to do

The things that will break his heart.

But if you make an ugly woman your wife,

You'll be happy for the rest of your life,

An ugly woman cooks her meals on time,

She'll always give you peace of mind.

Don't let your friends say

You have no taste,

Go ahead and marry anyway,

Though her face is ugly,

Her eyes don't match,

Take it from me she's a better catch.

[BruceH]

My parents considered me ugly...and I was an only child!! I don't get no respect I tell ya, no respect. (Excuse me while I tug on my tie and mop my brow...)

[RDK]

More Rodney!

Oh, when I was a kid, I was ugly. When I was born, the doctor smacked my mother!

I was an ugly kid. My old man took me to the circus; we went to see the freaks. The owner looked at me, he said, "Get the kid out. He's distracting from the show!"

And I was an ugly kid. Everytime my old man wanted sex, my mother showed him my picture. I mean, ugly. My mother breastfed me through a straw.

[jazzypaul]

When I was born, my dad said, "shit!" and the doctor said, "no! It has eyes!"