How to help students do better in school? Maybe we should try hiring better-looking teachers. Or subsidize gym memberships and makeovers for the teachers we already have.

如何帮助学生在学校表现更佳？也许我们该尝试雇用颜值高的老师。或者为我们现有的老师提供健身房会员资格和化妆品。

Those, at least, are the implications of a new study from researchers at the University of Nevada, who designed a simple but revealing experiment using college students to see whether a lecturer’s attractiveness has any impact on how much of the lecture students retain.

内华达大学的研究员进行了一项新研究，他们做了一个简单却能说明问题的实验，从大学生身上了解一名讲师的魅力是否会影响学生们对知识的掌握程度。至少这项新研究含蓄地肯定了颜值的影响。

More surprising: The researchers don’t think that sexual interest explains the results, which held up whether the teacher and students were of the same sex or not. This suggests, the improved student performance was “driven by processes independent from human sexual attraction, such as attention and motivation.” Or, it’s just human nature.

更令人惊讶的是，研究员认为，无论老师和学生的性别是否相同，性兴趣都不能解释这种结果。他们指出，提高成绩的学生是由与人类性魅力无关的因素来驱动的，比如注意力和动力。”或者说，这只是人类本性。

Sure enough, students found the attractive instructors¹ more motivating, easier to follow and possessed² of greater health, intelligence and competence³. They also generally agreed about the attractiveness of the lecturers.

毫无疑问，学生们认为有魅力的教师会使他们更有动力，更容易跟上，而且会变得更健康、更聪明、更有能力。而且，他们对讲师魅力的看法普遍一致。

Overall, the findings are consistent with a mountain of previous research about the effects of physical attractiveness. Earlier studies have found that good-looking people are considered more capable, intelligent, persuasive⁴ and socially skilled.

以前，也有大量研究探讨过外貌魅力的影响，总的来说，现在与过去的研究结果是一致的。早期研究指出，大家认为颜值高的人更有能力、更聪明、更有说服力，而且更擅长社交。