Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful
It may seem that attractive women are more likely to get promoted on their job rather than their plain-Jane colleagues. The same goes for men. Bradley Ruffle at Ben-Gurion University, and Ze’ev Shtudiner at Ariel University Centre; researched this issue and discovered that although a handsome man who includes a photo in a job application may get more interview requests, for women things worked the opposite way.
Their first instinct was to assume that the ‘dumb-blonde hypothesis’ might be the consequence of this; were a pretty, attractive woman was assumed to be stupid. However by delving deeper into the subject it was discovered that this result may be determined by the sex of the HR personnel setting up interviews.
This study showed that 93% of the people who are in charge of shortlisting are in fact women. This leads the authors to the conclusion that old-fashioned jealousy may lead to the discrimination of pretty candidates. Ruffle came to the conclusion that photos should not be attached to a job application as this hinders the chance of one getting an interview.
For candidates who are pretty the message is clear, for any person involved in shortlisting be careful... you could be missing out on talent. Interesting Read.
Research paper can be found at: http://www.ec.bgu.ac.il/monaster/admin/papers/1006_2.pdf
Article can be found at: http://www.economist.com/node/21551535
