Attractiveness is more beneficial for women applying for feminine sex-typed jobs than masculine sex-typed jobs, says lead researcher Professor Stefanie Johnson, from University of Colorado Denver Business School. Her research proves: Although being pretty will help those applying for secretarial jobs, for other roles in which appearance is deemed unimportant, attractive women are actually less likely to be recruited. However, handsome men are always at an advantage and never discriminated against.
Professor Johnson said: "One could argue that, under certain conditions, physical appearance may be a legitimate basis for hiring. In jobs involving face-to-face client contact, such as sales, more physically attractive applicants could conceivably perform better than those who are less attractive. However, it is important that if physical attractiveness is weighed equally for men and women to avoid discrimination against women."
Researchers gave participants a list of jobs and 110 photos of applicants - half men and half women - and told to sort them according to their suitability for the job .In job categories like director of security, hardware salesperson, prison guard and tow truck driver, attractive women were overlooked. In each of these jobs appearance was perceived to be unimportant.
But the research, published in the Journal of Social Psychology, found beautiful people still enjoy a significant edge on the whole. They tend to get higher salaries, better performance evaluations, higher levels of admission to college, better voter ratings when running for public office and more favourable judgments in trials.
But in one narrow aspect of life, beauty can be a hindrance, something researchers have called the 'beauty is beastly' effect. The report said: 'In two studies, we found that attractiveness is beneficial for men and women applying for most jobs, in terms of ratings of employment suitability. 'However, attractiveness was more beneficial for women applying for feminine sex-typed jobs than masculine sex-typed jobs.' (September 9th, 2010)
Sources: Daily Mail, Economic Times
