A bit of an analogy to the way in which beauty misleads us is found in our preference, or human proclivity, for symmetrical faces as more beautiful, you know, stereotypically beautiful faces. Even babies have a preference for more symmetrical faces. And so the kinds of people we judge as pretty, who are on the covers of fashion magazines, etc. – there is a kind of universality to that. Across cultures, there is that kind of recognition, and these particular qualities are judged as not just physically beautiful, but we also judge them to be more competent and more morally praiseworthy. And so people who are prettier by conventional standards get paid more money than people who are not, and they tend to be seen as somehow morally more competent, and a lot of research attests to that. And conversely, if you have disfigurements, if you’ve got a scar on your face, then you’re seen as morally suspect. 

This “beauty is good” hypothesis really derails us sometimes…