Aesthetic Capital: A Research Review on Beauty Perks and Penalties

The presence of aesthetically based cultural goods and their ever-increasing influence in modern society may pose a new conceptual opportunity to sociology. Specifically, how can the discipline forge an understanding of how value associated with beauty returns forms of individual wealth? A new term, i.e. aesthetic capital, might be an answer. Such a concept, we maintain, covers the privileges and wealth people receive from aesthetic traits, such as their face, hair, body, clothes, grooming habits and other markers of beauty. The purpose of our paper is to review the kinds of perks, and penalties, people receive from being deemed beautiful. Our review shows that visually appealing traits greatly impact our lives, in matters of modest importance (friend selection) to great importance (e.g. getting a job and career mobility). Thus, the promise of an aesthetic capital concept lies in enabling sociology to better understand inequality and the socially based forms of wealth available to individuals in modern society.