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Before I defend plainness as a career strategy, let me concede that we should all strive to bel eggy, doe-eyed, and beautiful. It certainly beats the alternative—or does it? For all their professional advanta ges, members of the eye-candy crowd may not sit as prettily as they appear. Few studies have examined the perils of beauty, or the upside of ordinary stock. But those that do offer some interesting reminders—above all, that beauty, like wealth, is both a blessing and a curse.
在我為“低調平凡是一種職場戰略”進行辯護前，請允許我勉強承認：我們都應該窮盡心思去追求擁有一雙修長美腿、一對撲閃無辜的大眼睛，以及動人的美貌。美麗當然能助你打敗其他的競爭對手——難道非然？原來，論及職場優勢，這些養眼人兒們卻不像看上去那么風光。很少有研究專門調查美麗的風險，或者說，平凡的好處。而這方面僅有的研究帶來了一些有趣的發現——歸根到底，美麗，猶如財富一樣，既是一種福分，也是一種詛咒。
Consider a new paper in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology that found that when attractive people—as determined by what an independent panel thought of their pictures—are evaluated by members of their own sex, the “beauty premium” disappears. The paper's authors speculate that biology may be the culprit. Male guppies gravitate toward the least sexually successful fish in their school (the better to emphasize their own fine scales)， so perhaps humans use similar logic in performance situations, viewing attractive members of the same sex as rivals who need to be avoided.
我想到《實驗社會心理學雜志》上新刊登的一篇論文，該文發現：當一個獨立專門小組通過照片對個人魅力進行評估時，那些被認為極具魅力的人在同性評估者的眼中不再具有“美貌優勢”。論文的作者們推斷，生物本能可能是其根本原因所在。雄性孔雀魚往往會靠向魚群里最不吸引雌性的那些同類(以突顯自己身上漂亮的魚鱗)。所以，這個邏輯可能也同樣適用于人類的行為，人們會把具有魅力的同性成員視為必須避開的競爭對手。
Even if beauty helps someone land a job—and here is where the burden appears greater for women—too much aesthetic attention can be disastrous. In a study published last winter in the European Journal of Social Psychology, sexy ladies between the ages of 18 and 35 were filmed while scissoring through a corridor, then asked to watch the tape of themselves being literally objectified for their looks. A cognitive test followed, revealing that the women being filmed by men were more likely to make intellectual errors than their peers being watched by women. Being conscious of this type of sexual attention, the study's author suggests, may crowd out the capacity to focus on other things.
即使美貌有時能幫人找到工作——女性們在這方面能體會到更大壓力——然而對美貌的過分關注也可能會帶來毀滅性的后果。《歐洲社會心理學雜志》去年冬天刊登了一項研究：將年齡介乎18到35歲的性感女子們經過走廊時的優雅姿態拍攝下來，然后給她們看這些錄影帶，看著自己如同花瓶般被物化對待。隨后再進行一個認知測試，結果表明：由男性執鏡拍攝的女性，相比起那些由同性執鏡拍攝的女性，更容易犯些智力錯誤。研究作者表示，當人們意識到異性的關注時，他們對其他事情的注意力就會受到影響。
Really beautiful women also face a gantlet of social slings and arrows. They are )usted after, envied, resented. They struggle to connect with peers, and sense that they are being secretly ridiculed. Around the office, at least, they seem to be right. Other women give their attractive female colleagues points for popularity. But they also rate them less competent, less talented, less loyal, and (weirdly) less motherly than women from homelier stock. This leads to another depressing conclusion for the beautiful: people doubt them, assuming that their success is a function of schmoozing—or worse. (It certainly doesn't help that pretty people in general are more likely to be genuine narcissists, according to a study published last year in the Journal of Research in Personality.)
艷壓群芳的女人還要面對社會上其他人的唇槍舌劍夾擊。她們既招人思慕、嫉妒，也惹人怨恨。她們與同輩交往總是感到膈膜重重，總感覺到被同性們在暗地里奚落。至少在職場上，她們的這種感覺是正確的。對那些頗具魅力的女性，其他女性同事會承認她們是很受歡迎，但同時也評價這些人既無能力，也無才華，忠誠度不夠，而且(詭異的是)比起那些樸實女性，她們更缺乏母性魅力。這又帶出令美貌人群相當失落的一個結論：人們懷疑她們，總覺得她們的成功是靠拉關系——甚至其他更糟糕的手段。(《個性研究雜志》去年刊登的一項研究結果指出：擁有美貌的人通常天生更加容易自戀。這樣一來，我們就更難改觀了。
