{"id":5689,"date":"2014-08-12T13:54:42","date_gmt":"2014-08-12T12:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.viasto.com\/en\/?post_type=post&p=5689"},"modified":"2020-01-30T10:17:53","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T08:17:53","slug":"beauty-bias-in-recruiting-and-how-you-can-fight-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.viasto.com\/en\/blog\/beauty-bias-in-recruiting-and-how-you-can-fight-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Beauty bias in recruiting and how you can fight it!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever been curious about whether others think you\u2019re beautiful? Then just upload your picture on www.beautifulpeople.com<\/a><\/strong> and have others evaluate your attractiveness. Now you might think it\u2019s \u201cjust a normal dating site\u201d. However, it isn\u2019t. There is actually another service which you might consider quite uncommon. Here<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0you will find the first job listing service for attractive candidates.<\/p>\n

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This is what they say:<\/p>\n

\u201cBeautifulPeople\u2019s recruitment service makes it easy for businesses to secure attractive personable employees to give your business that competitive edge. The members of BeautifulPeople.com offer a wealth of skills, qualifications and expertise with the added bonus that they all look fantastic.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Wow! Almost too good to be true!<\/p>\n

Apart from the fact that beauty is quite subjective, I am wondering whether recruiting is sacrificing competencies for beauty. Is the concept of the site discriminatory?<\/p>\n

Yes, of course it is. Behind the business model, however, lies a more fundamental question: Is it easier for attractive candidates to get a job? What’s behind the Beauty Bias in Recruiting? Let\u2019s dig deeper here:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is it easier for attractive candidates to get a job?<\/span><\/h5>\n

The first question can be answered quickly: Yes. Is that fair? No, but what\u2019s fair in life?<\/p>\n

Statistics show that when it comes to employment interviews we tend to rate attractive people better (Huffcutt, 2011) and we tend to give them higher salaries. Not to mention the fact that life in general seems to be easier for them. (Anderson, Adams & Plaut, 2008).\u00a0Sure, model or hostess agencies define beauty as a selection criterion in a wider sense. We\u2019ll leave the discussion about unhealthy ideals of beauty up to experts like Karl Lagerfeld as well as ideal and cultural pessimists of our time \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

However, we can surely agree that attractiveness should not be a selection criterion for the majority of job profiles.<\/p>\n

Why do we rate beautiful people better? <\/span><\/h5>\n

So often, human beings are not rational in this area either. Here, we are confronted with a stereotype which roughly says “What is beautiful is good”<\/strong> – and therefore correct\/appropriate. Even though I’m not a big fan of evolutionary psychology, the nature of stereotypes lies in generous generalization. This makes thinking easier. To digest the load of information we get every single day, we resort to some extent of stereotyped thinking, which contains categories like “beautiful -> positive characteristics”.<\/p>\n

If you think now that you just have to be beautiful to achieve everything you want, you might be mistaken. Attractiveness could also have the opposite effect once different stereotypes meet: Attractive people may be considered to be more competent in general, but when it comes to filling a management position, they tend to be regarded as less competent, less assertive, etc …<\/p>\n

Interested in getting more information about stereotypes or prejudices? Then you should read research by Princeton\u2019s Susan Fiske\u2019s<\/a> <\/strong>– one of the world’s most renowned researchers in this field.<\/p>\n

Employment interview: how can you outsmart the Beauty Bias?
\n<\/span><\/h5>\n

For those who do not recruit models or Abercrombie & Fitch guys, a fair evaluation can be implemented quite easily by introducing structure into the process.<\/p>\n

A structured interview differs from an unstructured interview in certain key areas:<\/strong><\/p>\n