For years, people have touted the age-old saying that money can’t make someone happy. But, according to a recent study by two University of Texas at Austin professors, being beautiful can.

The researchers, from the UT Department of Economics, surveyed men and women in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany to show how someone’s personal beauty affects their happiness. They found that attractive people are more likely to be happy.

The results for the United States were taken from a Quality of Life survey completed between 1971 and 1978 in which participants age 18 and above were asked during an interview about their happiness. At the end of the interview, each participants’ appearance was rated on a scale of one to five, one being the most unattractive and five being strikingly handsome or beautiful.

The survey concluded that the people who were rated in the upper three attractiveness categories led happier lives than those rated in the bottom two categories. The same survey conducted in Canada showed similar results to those from the United States.

Students at St. Edward’s University, such as freshman Candy Greer, were skeptical about the study.

“How can a person define what’s beautiful? The way people rate appearance varies from person to person,” Greer said.

The survey completed in Germany returned slightly different results than those reported in the United States and Canada. Participants were interviewed just as they had been in previous surveys, but they were rated on their looks at the beginning and at the end of the interview. The results showed that participants’ looks were rated slightly higher at the end of the interview compared to the beginning.

Freshman Daniel Dominguez said he understands why someone might rate another person’s looks higher after an interview.

“I think that once you meet a person, you get to know them, so it’s reasonable that you would rate them as better looking,” Dominguez said.

Greer said she agrees.

“Personally, before I date someone I can find them unattractive,” Greer said. “But once I get to know them and their personality, I can start to find them attractive.”

Germany’s results still followed the same pattern as all the other countries — people who were considered to have good looks reported being more satisfied with their lives than others.

The United Kingdom, however, took a completely different approach than the other countries. Their participants began the study at the young age of 7. The participants’ teachers were asked to rate their students’ looks at the beginning of the study and then again when they were 11 years old.

Recently, the students who participated in the U.K. study were asked questions about their life — for example, if they were happy with the way it turned out. Most of the participants reported being content and satisfied with their lives, no matter how attractive their teachers had considered them.

Although the surveys from the United States, Canada and Germany showed similar results, even the researchers admit that their survey could not clearly define what constitutes beauty and whether or not it actually causes people to lead happy lives.

“Beauty is such a hard thing to define. I think everyone has a different idea of beauty because it changes so frequently,” Dominguez said.