International Very Good Looking Smart People Day

What the day is

International Very Good Looking Smart People Day is observed on February 26. No origin is documented, and the record carries no description at all. The joke is that anybody reading it will assume they qualify.

Origin and background

That assumption has a name. The halo effect describes the tendency for one positive impression to spill over into unrelated judgments, so a person rated as attractive is also rated, by the same observer, as more intelligent, more competent and more trustworthy without any evidence for those things. It was identified in the 1920s in military officers assessing their subordinates, where ratings of physically impressive soldiers came out high on every other quality too, and it has been replicated across a century of settings.

The consequences are not trivial. Studies have found attractiveness associated with differences in hiring outcomes, earnings, teaching evaluations and even judicial sentencing, none of which are meant to depend on appearance. The effect operates below awareness, which is why people are confident they are judging on merit while doing something else.

The self-flattery half has its own literature. Most people rate themselves above average on desirable traits, which is arithmetically impossible for the whole population, and the effect is strongest where the quality is vague enough to define in your own favor. Intelligence and appearance are both conveniently vague.

There is a related finding worth pairing with it: people least competent in an area frequently have the least basis for recognizing that, since the knowledge required to judge performance is the same knowledge required to perform well.

So the honest way to keep the day is to enjoy the compliment while noticing that it was free.

How to take part

• Accept the compliment, then read about the halo effect.
• Notice it in yourself the next time you find someone instantly credible.
• Use structured criteria when assessing anyone, which is the main defense against it.
• Compliment somebody on something they actually did.