In my previous blog, I talked about the impact of the ‘halo effect’ regarding the hiring of employees. I mentioned a study which showed the hiring pattern of female interviewers based on the physical attractiveness of both male and female job applicants. In this blog, I would like to address the hiring patterns of males based on the same applicants.
According to Carl Senior and Michael J.R. Butler, the study’s conductors, the experiments results were that “Male interviewers did not differ in the number of high or low status job packages that were given to attractive looking interviewees of either sex, though the male interviewers gave out more low status job packages overall, irrespective of the sex of the interviewee.”
However, Carl Senior and Michael J.R. Butler concluded that the male interviewers hiring decisions were not completely unbiased. During the study, the electrodermal response of the males were measured to determine if their emotions biased their decisions. The electrodermal response is believed to increase when these emotions affect preferential decisions. The electrodermal response for males increased when they were giving attractive females low status jobs. Science Daily concludes that “the fact that this difference only occurred when assigning low status job packages ensures that the effect could not have been driven by interpersonal attraction, but rather by emotion.”
Although this study observed actions and patterns of a randomized group, it was also the first study to use the electrodermal response to measure emotional biased when hiring others. Therefore, the electrodermal responses measures may not be entirely reliable, but the observational portion of the study examined enough people to prove that the result was not an anecdote.
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/halo-effect/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071206124838.htm
I believe that there is basis views that land or forfeit people jobs. I do not think we need science to prove this because it is obvious. If there are two females with the same skill sets however one is attractive and the other is not. Then I would bet my money that the more attractive one would get hired. Same goes through a women’s eyes comparing two men for the job. The only times I think this theory would fail is if the more attractive person is far less qualified for the job, has a incompetent hiring manager, or job is based off of looks such as hooters, strippers, and shampoo girls (a pretty shampoo girl in the barbershop will make men pay for a shampoo even though they do not need one).