When applying for a job, it sometimes pays to be average looking.
While there may be more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good-looking, it’s generally accepted that beautiful people have it easier. But if you’re ridiculously good-looking and unemployed, you better hope you find an employer with a ridiculously good-looking boss. Otherwise, you might be out of luck.
Tom Jacobs over at Miller-McCune recently reported on a study that revealed a personal bias of employers and scholarship committee members when evaluating applicants of the same sex.
Men wanted to hire good looking women. Women wanted to hire good looking men. Duh. But when men were asked to evaluate men and women were asked to evaluate women, there was a bias. Both sexes were less likely to hire someone they viewed as better looking than they were.
Great. So we’ve been to the moon, created palm-sized computers, have three-dimensional television and a government founded on democratic ideals, but at the core we’re all still pretty petty.
The good news is that two groups are immune to this bias. First, men and women who are so much better looking than other people don’t see anyone as competition—and consequently aren’t biased. Then there are folks who erroneously think they look great; they’re apparently too oblivious to be biased.
It’s always a bummer when a pimple shows up before a big interview, but maybe that’s not a bad thing anymore. If you happen to be blessed with kind eyes and a symmetrical face, go play hockey and get a few teeth knocked out.
—Ryan O’Hanlon
I found they’re producing a television show about this topic, and they’re still looking for participants. Seems pretty cool! http://goo.gl/DPoSw
I wonder how the sexual orientation of the person doing the hiring affects this bias.