Beauty and Occupations: A Historical Word Embedding Analysis

Abstract: We have long known that physical beauty confers social and professional benefits, yet how these stereotypes evolve historically and intersect with occupations is underexplored. Using 200 years of English-language texts, we apply large-scale historical word embeddings and find that beautiful and handsome maintain consistently positive associations, whereas ugly shows more varied, less negative patterns. Over time, occupations converge semantically with beautiful and handsome, suggesting a tighter link between attractiveness and professional roles. We also observe a growing association between attractiveness and social capital within these roles. These findings challenge assumptions of static beauty stereotypes, revealing how cultural ideals of attractiveness dynamically align with shifting notions of occupational value. By highlighting how beauty biases gain prominence in professional settings, our work underscores the need to examine how aesthetic norms shape hiring practices, social skill perceptions, and career outcomes.

Keywords: Beauty, stereotype content, professions, word embeddings