Beauty has always been regarded as something praise worthy. Almost everyone thinks attractive people are happier and healthier, have better marriages and have more respectable occupations. Personal consultants give them better advice for finding jobs. Even judges are softer on attractive defendants (被告). But in the executive circle, beauty can become a liability.

While attractiveness is a positive factor for a man on his way up the executive ladder, it is harmful to a woman.

Handsome male executives were thought as having more integrity than plainer men; effort and ability were thought to account for their success.

Attractive female executives were considered to have less integrity than unattractive ones; their success was attributed not to ability but to factors such as luck.

All unattractive women executives were thought to have more integrity and to be more capable than the attractive female executives. Interestingly, though, the rise of the unattractive overnight successes was attributed more to personal relationships and less to ability than that of attractive overnight successes.

Why are attractive women not thought to be able? An attractive woman is thought to be more feminine and an attractive man more masculine (有男子气概的) than the less attractive ones. Thus, an attractive woman has an advantage in traditionally female jobs, but an attractive woman in a traditionally masculine position appears to lack the "masculine" qualities required.

This is true even in politics. ′When the only clue is how he or she looks, people treat men and women differently,′ says Anne Bowman, who recently published a study on the effects of attractiveness on political candidates. She asked 125 undergraduate students to rank two groups of photographs, one of men and one of women, in order of attractiveness. The students were told the photographs were of candidates for political offices. They were asked to rank them again, in the order they

• A.turns out to be an obstacle to men
• B.is more of an obstacle than an advantage to women
• C.affects men and women alike
• D.has as little effect on men as on women