A study conducted by researchers from the London Business School suggests that attractive individuals, often thought to receive preferential treatment in hiring, might face a disadvantage when applying for less desirable jobs, particularly those with low pay or uninteresting tasks. The study, comprising four experiments with over 750 participants, including university students and real-world hiring managers, revealed unexpected patterns in decision-making.
During the experiments, participants evaluated profiles of two potential job candidates—one attractive and one unattractive—based on vetted photos. Subsequent questions aimed to measure perceptions and, in three experiments, to assess hiring decisions for less desirable versus more desirable jobs. Surprisingly, in all three scenarios, participants were notably less inclined to hire the attractive candidate for the less desirable job and more likely to select them for the more desirable role.
Margaret Lee, a doctoral candidate at the London Business School and lead author of the study, noted that participants perceived attractive individuals as feeling more entitled to positive outcomes and predicted them to be less content in undesirable job situations. Even hiring managers exhibited this bias, opting for the unattractive candidate for less desirable positions.
Contrary to expectations based on prior research, the findings suggest that decision-makers consider assumed aspirations in their choices. Madan Pillutla from the London Business School highlighted the unexpected reversal of discrimination patterns, as participants believed attractive individuals would desire better outcomes, leading them to favor unattractive candidates for less desirable roles.
The study challenges the commonly held assumption that attractiveness always plays a positive role in job selection, especially in high-level positions that were the primary focus of past research. Therefore, the findings suggest a need for different measures by organizations and policymakers to address discrimination in hiring processes, particularly for less desirable jobs.
