Redistribution is back in fashion. The chancellor is handing out support for energy bills to everyone, while increasing taxes, largely on richer households, will deliver an average gain of £1,195 for the poorest quarter of households and an average loss of £456 for the richest quarter. I think this is good, some disgruntled Tory backbenchers see it as bad and now an Italian wonk has proved that it is in fact ugly.
Our views on redistribution normally fit traditional left/right approaches, but you know what also matters? How beautiful you are. Researchers have long known that attractive people are happier, get better jobs and find it easier to make friends. Now a new study shows that beauty affects our political preferences too: beautiful people are less keen on redistribution than the, ummm, “less attractive” rest of us. This holds for men and women.
So why do modern-day Adonises hate redistribution? Because beautiful people are more likely to think that success depends on individual merit. This research was on German beauties, who are more likely to vote for the economically liberal FDP. It is silent on whether this means all those “never kissed a Tory” T-shirts come with a higher price tag than generally thought.
Is this result just because beautiful people tend to get paid more and richer people are less keen on redistribution? Nope. Even correcting for incomes, attractiveness makes you less pro-redistribution.Instead, the author argues, this is all about lucky people telling themselves they deserve their good fortune and being in denial about the role looks play in their successes. Beauties have misheard Tina Turner and think “what’s luck got to do with it?” but the rest of us know the truth – a hell of a lot.
• Torsten Bell is chief executive of the Resolution Foundation. Read more at resolutionfoundation.org
