Simone Cheung‘s job is to quantify the seemingly unquantifiable. As a health economist with Deloitte Access Economics, she’s led projects that measure the economic and social impact of, for example, violence against children and elder neglect. Putting a tangible price tag on these societal issues cements them as just that — societal issues, not individual ones — and encourages policy-makers to pass laws and allocate government resources accordingly.

With that in mind, The Dove Self-Esteem Project posed a question to Cheung and S. Bryn Austin, ScD, professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: Can you quantify the cost of society’s beauty ideals? The answer is yes, and the resulting study is the first of its kind.

“We have known for years how damaging harmful beauty ideals can be to mental health and well-being and how insidious appearance-based discrimination, especially discrimination based on weight and skin shade, can be in undermining opportunities in work, education, and so much more,” says Dr. Austin, who also serves as director of the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED). “But for the most part, the focus of past research has been on the individuals most affected, not on the impact for society more broadly. And what we have not had until now is a clear picture of the impact of these problems on the US economy.”

And like we said: Talking dollars and cents can be the best way to get lawmakers to listen.

The Real Cost of Beauty Ideals report, which is now available to view on Dove.com, examines the financial and well-being costs of both body dissatisfaction and appearance-based discrimination — citing $305 billion and $501 billion in losses, respectively. These figures account for a long list of factors, including lower probability of employment due to discrimination and the need for government-funded services due to mental health issues.

“If you look at it from a different perspective, the numbers are saying that if we were to tackle harmful beauty ideals front-on, there is the opportunity to lift productivity and economic output in the US,” says Cheung, “$305 billion worth if we addressed body dissatisfaction and $501 billion worth if we addressed appearance-based discrimination.”