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The simple truth about beauty is this: Since antiquity, women and men have primped and preened, buffed up, trimmed down, and generally worried themselves sick about their looks. The more insidious, less acknowledged truth is that physical attractiveness can be a powerful force that brings success at every step—from our role within the family to our rank in the classroom to our salary on the job—as well as a burden that fuels our obsessions and drives us to damaging decisions.

Looks lifts the veil from some ugly truths about beauty as it details a wide body of evidence pointing to its pervasive, sometimes detrimental, effect on our lives. Drawing from sources as diverse as fairy tales and biblical stories, historical cases and contemporary research, consumer advertising and reality TV, Looks exposes some of the unsettling facts about the attractiveness phenomenon:

Neonatal nurses prefer healthy infants with normal birth weights and devote less attention to babies with low Apgar scores.

Mothers offer more and better attention to their most attractive children, who may then even exhibit better traits and more socialized behavior than their less attractive siblings.

Teachers actually expect better-looking children to perform well, leading to more attention, less punishment, and higher grades.

Employers consistently hire and promote the best-looking candidates in a pool of equally qualified applicants.

All of this has an uglier side, too, even for those with looks to spare. Looks explores the rise of unhealthy body obsessions and provides sound advice for keeping a sane perspective in a superficial, celebrity-obsessed society. For both women and men, Looks provides an unflinching exposé of the powerful, sometimes damaging effects of beauty—profound knowledge that can change the way you live, work, or parent your children.

Gordon L. Patzer, Ph.D., is the director and founder of the Appearance Phenomenon Institute. A former dean at Roosevelt University in Chicago, California State University honored his service with their lifetime title of Professor Emeritus. Dr. Patzer has investigated "lookism" and the physical attractiveness phenomenon for more than thirty years. He has been featured in publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Harper's Bazaar, Mademoiselle, Elle, Self, and Cosmopolitan, as well as on Dateline NBC, The Today Show, and The O'Reilly Factor. He lives in Chicago.