“After adjusting for numerous other factors that might raise a professor’s salary, including his or her age and publication productivity, the authors found that ‘hot’ professors earned at least 6 percent more per academic year than their otherwise identical less good-looking peers,” Inside Higher Ed reported.

The author of the Inside Higher Ed article, Daniel S. Hammermesh, recently wrote a book entitled “Beauty Pays,” available starting Sunday, in which professor and economist Hammermesh explains “how attractive workers make more money, how these amounts differ by gender and how looks are valued differently based on profession,” according to the book’s description on Amazon.com. He also explores whether a higher salary for the better looking is discriminatory.

In discussing “hot” professors, Hammermesh does mention another study conducted at his own school, the University of Texas Austin, in which students gave higher ratings to professors who they rated as better looking, which may contribute to the higher pay as university administrators “do claim they reward professors for good teaching,” Hammermesh wrote.

Hammermesh himself has not been given a chili pepper or rated as “hot” by his students on RateMyProfessor.com.

Earlier this year, he released a study saying that beautiful people are often happier than their less-good-looking counterparts and says, in part, this has to do with making more money. and, he says, beauty affects women’s happiness more than men’s.

USA TODAY asked Hammermesh whether this means that people should think about plastic surgery or other beauty enhancements.

“It doesn’t help much,” Hammermesh told the reporter. “Your beauty is determined to a tremendous extent by the shape of your face, by its symmetry and how everything hangs together.”

TIME writer Brad Tuttle brought up an interesting point after reviewing the study.

“What’s puzzling is that other studies show that the traditional rewards of being rich—buying lots of stuff—don’t make people happy, and that happiness is something that more often comes with growing older, not growing richer. Researchers who study the super rich have also revealed that serious problems and stresses come with having too much money.”

Tuttle concludes, “Ultimately, it’s the people who obsess about their personal wealth and/or attractiveness that are less happy.”

<a href="http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700172228/Appearance-matters-to-success-of-a-professor.htmltag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700172228/Appearance-matters-to-success-of-a-professor.htmlSat, 20 Aug 2011 05:22:20 GMT 00:00″>Appearance matters to success of a professor