Appearance matters to success of a professor

In academia, it doesn't matter what you look like, right? It just matters that you are intelligent, work hard and teach well.

Not according to a study of more than 400 economic professors in Ontario, Canada, that Inside Higher Ed reported on this week. The study looked at ratemyprofessors.com's hotness rating, in which students can assign a chili pepper to teachers they believe are good looking.

"After adjusting for numerous other factors that might raise a professor's salary, including his or her age and publication productivity, the authors found that 'hot' professors earned at least 6 percent more per academic year than their otherwise identical less good-looking peers," Inside Higher Ed reported.

The author of the Inside Higher Ed article, Daniel S. Hammermesh, recently wrote a book entitled "Beauty Pays," available starting Sunday, in which professor and economist Hammermesh explains "how attractive workers make more money, how these amounts differ by gender and how looks are valued differently based on profession," according to the book's description on Amazon.com. He also explores whether a higher salary for the better looking is discriminatory.

In discussing "hot" professors, Hammermesh does mention another study conducted at his own school, the University of Texas Austin, in which students gave higher ratings to professors who they rated as better looking, which may contribute to the higher pay as university administrators "do claim they reward professors for good teaching," Hammermesh wrote.

Hammermesh himself has not been given a chili pepper or rated as "hot" by his students on RateMyProfessor.com.

Earlier this year, he released a study saying that beautiful people are often happier than their less-good-looking counterparts and says, in part, this has to do with making more money. And, he says, beauty affects women's happiness more than men's.

USA TODAY asked Hammermesh whether this means that people should think about plastic surgery or other beauty enhancements.

"It doesn't help much," Hammermesh told the reporter. "Your beauty is determined to a tremendous extent by the shape of your face, by its symmetry and how everything hangs together."

TIME writer Brad Tuttle brought up an interesting point after reviewing the study.