(1) is way short of any scientific demonstration, and anecdotal evidence would suggest there are good-looking stupid people as well as less good-looking intelligent people.
(2) is something that surely happens. Good-looking (and tall) people get offered better jobs and better pay, for example. But here we're talking about written exam results (though if the writers of this piece didn't control for examiners knowing candidates, as Migeru says, that would seem to shoot their work in the foot.)
(3) Our status as individuals depends a lot on our perception of ourselves as others see us. Good-looking and tall people (whatever their social background) receive positive feedback from others, build high self-esteem, and perform better as a result in ranking trials. (Another interesting control would be to test for results when candidates sit an exam separately rather than as a group).
I won't have succeeded in hiding my preference for (3) (with, certainly, an admixture of (2)). What would really be interesting would be to study this cross-culturally, where canons of beauty differed. Would an individual accounted good-looking through our culturally-determined eyes, but belonging to a culture where s/he is accounted ugly, do well in exams (in either culture)? (Practically, unfortunately, not an easy study to set up...)
I would like to see a similar test done of truly blind written exams, like for instance the Spanish university admission exams [selectividad]. guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
This should be double tested with controlled blind and double blind experiments.
Point 1 is not true. Point 2 and three could be possible, but all the literature about other similar issues points that two is highly correct with 3 difficult to detect.
On the other hand 2 is not at all universal. Actually ,as I said, the best way to get a good grade is that the teacher knows you got good grades in the past. A cumulative effect happens and nobody notices..but blind and double blind experiments have shown this to be the case clearly.
This is why in Spain professors do not have any idea about the grades of the student in high school when the exams to acces the University are performed. They also must be university professors. It is have been shown to have to most fair grades you can ever get.
A pleasure I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude
