Beauty and the Welfare State
Periklis Polyzoidis

Abstract
People spend billions of dollars on improving their image. Beautiful men and women are perceived as happier and more intelligent, trustworthy, successful and popular. There is plenty of scientific evidence that shows that physical appearance plays a significant role in political elections, education, the labor market, income and justice. All these findings lead to the plausible question of whether physical appearance has an impact on welfare provisions. The purpose of this paper is not to answer this question directly but to investigate whether it is worth exploring further. We discuss the possible impact of physical attractiveness on health and social security and attempt to discover its possible impact on social care through an empirical approach based on primary data collected by a survey targeting people who are active in social care organizations. The main conclusion is that physical attractiveness has an indirect impact on health services and social security and a marginal impact on social care provision.

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