What's happening?

Rashid al-Haddad just wanted to be feared. The YemeniFrom Yemen, a country of nearly 33 million bordering Saudi Arabia on the Arabian peninsula. man posted a TikTokA Chinese social media company featuring short videos with one billion monthly users. clip from a ship he had taken over, boasting about being a pirate.

His post blew up. But not for the reasons he had planned. Social media users wanted to talk about his good looks instead.

Al-Haddad is just the latest in a long line of serious or deadly people who are remembered more for their looks rather than their actions.

Take Che GuevaraAn Argentina Marxist revolutionary, who was a major figure of the Cuban revolution. He died in 1967. . The South American has one of the most well-known faces in history. But more people remember his looks than his role in a key revolutionA sudden change in the way things are done..

Meanwhile, Jesse JamesA 19th Century American outlaw, bank and train robber and gang leader. was a robber who murdered people. But films show him as a heroic outlawA person who has broken the law and who lives separately from the other parts of society because they want to escape legal punishment..

Find out more

Humans use looks as an instantStraight away. way of learning about someone. Expert Robert Cialdini points out that we often think good-looking people are kind, clever and talented - even though that may not be true.

But others say looks do not really matter. For example, Napoleon BonaparteThe French military commander and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars.'s laws and wars changed the world. But he was known in his lifetime for looking very normal.

Do looks matter?

Yes! It is one thing we know about ourselves: we constantly think about how we and others look. We are more likely to think good things about good-looking people. Just like life, it is unfair.

No! You can be powerful and successful without being good-looking. Think of the leaders of the world today. Most of them look very averageTypical or usual. .