Is it the chicken or the egg? Is it the passport or the experience of the harrowing passport photo that makes holders of international passports more attractive than the average American?
It’s long been on the books that a shamefully low percentage of Americans have passports — while we don’t have an exact number for today; it’s safe to assume the percentage is still hovering safely under a third or even a quarter.
A recent study has shown that in a blind sampling of Americans rated on a scale from one to ten in attractiveness, those who held international passports were, on average, 37% more attractive than those who had never left the States.
How can this be? Does a trip abroad make one better looking?
Perhaps it’s that people who have seen their passport photos strive to make amends. Perhaps, as some assert, people with passports are more likely to have money, and are thus more likely to be “well-groomed.”
In any case, while those with passports were indeed shown to be more attractive than others, there was no difference in “tendency to be a totally ignorant jerk when in a foreign country.”