Beauty CAN change your life, says plastic surgeon Dr Bryan Mendelson says pretty people earn more Less attractive people have to work harder for the same rewards The economic benefit of beauty is estimated to be £150,000 We're hardwired to appreciate good looks - and that's why beautiful people do better, a leading plastic surgeon has revealed. What's more, says Dr Bryan Mendelson, former president of the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, pretty people not only get a head start in life, they also tend to have better relationships and earn more money than their less attractive peers. Dr Mendelson's revelations come in the wake of a string of books that make the same point, most controversially in sociologist Catherine Hakim's Erotic Capital, which argued that women should use their looks to get ahead. Being born beautiful can dramatically boost your chances of being a success at work and in relationships Although Dr Mendelson's new book, In Your Face, doesn't go as far as Hakim's opus, his arguments revisit the idea of 'pulchronomics', a term invented by US economist, Daniel S. Hamermesh to describe the economic value of good looks. In Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful, Harmesh put the economic benefit of being born beautiful at $230,000 (£150,684) spread over a lifetime. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Dr Mendelson said: 'There has been a study on less attractive men and how much their looks cost them. 'Throughout their lives these men have to work harder and perform better than good looking men, but ultimately they are still getting less because they aren't seen to be so nice. 'We associate people who are attractive as being good people,' he added. 'People who don't look so nice are constantly being labelled and police target people who look like criminals.' Experience: Dr Mendelson draws on a 25-year career and numerous studies in his new book, In Your Face The findings revealed by Dr Mendelson in In Your Face are based on academic studies as well as the surgeon's personal and professional experience. A cosmetic surgeon for more than 25 years in his native Australia, his new book looks at the reasons why people go under the knife - as well as the potential for a post-surgery pay-off. Interestingly, he says that 99.9 per cent of clients don't tell their friends and family that they've had anything done. 'People have surgery not to impress others, they do it to impress themselves,' the surgeon reveals. 'For many people, it's about getting their confidence back. The fact is it's about self-esteem. They're doing it for themselves.' Read more at the Huffington Post