Do Pretty People Get the Jobs?

There are different hidden issues that can influence the recruitment and selection process other than the qualifications and experience of the candidates.  Appearance is one of them.  There is considerable evidence that physical attractiveness impacts employment decision making, with the result that the more attractive an individual, the greater the likelihood that the person will be hired (Watkins and Johnson, 2000).  Similarly, other factors like the age of the candidate, facial expressions and attractive communication skills are effective too.

Research shows that beautiful people are hired sooner, get promotions quicker, are higher ranking in their companies, and receive extra benefits.  The benefit to the employer?  It turns out that attractive people often bring more money to their companies and therefore are more valuable employees.

Is there an link between the applicant's physical appearance, grooming, dressing style and the hiring decision by managers?  To quote my son,  "If you have two equally qualified candidates in a business environment, are you going to hire the pretty person or the not so pretty person?  You're going to hire the pretty person!  I want to shop with the pretty girl, not the pimply guy!"

But all of these practices of biasness can put an organization at risk for applying unethical actions. Making decisions based on the non-job-related factors is detrimental to the overall organizational performance.  And, employers must be cautions of the reputation of their business.

For just a moment let's reflect on American Apparel's disturbing beauty-based hiring policy.  But then again, Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch also have the same sex-appeal based employment policies. Abercrombie and Fitch lost a class action lawsuit that claimed the organizations "look policy" was racially discriminatory.  The court found that a specific "all American" look was not necessary for the actual job in which the company was hiring, and the company settled the case for $50 million and agreed to change its "look policy" to hire candidates of varying races.  But, they did not face legal trouble for hiring attractive people.  They needed to clarify that "good looking" people come from varying races.

Given the legislation prohibiting employment discrimination based on non-job-related factors such as race, gender, ethnicity, age and disability, it is interesting that there is no legislation regarding physical attractiveness.  Because many of these protected factors tend to overlap with physical attractiveness or personal appearance, employers need to tread carefully.  An example of where personal appearance may intersect with protections under law include not hiring a person because s/he is obese (ADA) or a preference for hiring younger employees as opposed to older employees, or biasing a specific gender or race as more attractive.