Are Good-Looking People More Employable?

Ruffle, Bradley J.; Shtudiner, Ze’ev

doi:10.1287/mnsc.2014.1927

Cited by 163 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(9 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

111

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…find a gender-specific effect of attractiveness, namely a beauty premium for males and a beauty penalty for females, while LópezBóo et al (2013) find a beauty premium for both genders. The beauty penalty observed byRuffle and Shtudiner (2014) is most consistent with jealousy, a type of taste-based discrimination that may not arise in our setting due to limited interactions between workers and employers. It is unclear whether the beauty premium found by LópezBóo et al (2013) is based on tastes or is statistical.…”

supporting

confidence: 60%

“…SeeWilson and Eckel (2006) for beauty and learning in a trust game andAndreoni and Petrie (2008) andCastillo et al (2012a) for beauty and learning in a public goods game, among others.3 Dermer and Thiel (1975) document that certain socially undesirable characteristics, such as egotism and materialism, are ascribed to relatively attractive females Ruffle and Shtudiner (2014). find a beauty penalty for attractive female job applicants Wilson and Eckel (2006).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For an overview of non-Bayesian updating, seeKahneman et al (1982) andRabin (1998).5 Ruffle and Shtudiner (2014) and LópezBóo et al (2013) investigate the role of physical attractiveness at this initial hiring stage by examining the response rates to fictional CVs Ruffle and Shtudiner (2014). find a gender-specific effect of attractiveness, namely a beauty premium for males and a beauty penalty for females, while LópezBóo et al (2013) find a beauty premium for both genders.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Now you see it, now you don’t: The vanishing beauty premium

Deryugina

Shurchkov

2015

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

supporting

confidence: 60%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Now you see it, now you don’t: The vanishing beauty premium

Deryugina

Shurchkov

2015

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…IJM 36,1 A previous resume audit study conducted by Ruffle and Shtudiner (2014) for the Israeli labor market finds that employers call back men with attractive photos attached to their resumes at twice the rate of those with no photo or those with a plain-looking photo attached. Their study also reports that women with attractive photos attached to their resumes are penalized, that is, they have a significantly lower callback rates than women with no photos.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“As rare as a panda”

Maurer‐Fazio

Lei

2015

International Journal of Manpower

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore how both gender and facial attractiveness affect job candidates' chances of obtaining interviews in China's dynamic internet job board labor market. It examines how discrimination based on these attributes varies over occupation, location, and firms' ownership type and size. Design/methodology/approach -The authors carry out a resume audit (correspondence) study. Resumes of fictitious applicants are first carefully crafted to make candidates appear equally productive in terms of their work histories and educational backgrounds. The authors control gender and facial attractiveness. The authors establish the facial attractiveness of candidate photos via an online survey. In total, 24,192 applications are submitted to 12,096 job postings across four occupations in six Chinese cities. Callbacks are carefully tracked and recorded. Discrimination is estimated by calculating the differences in the rates of callbacks for interviews received by individuals whose applications vary only in terms of facial attractiveness and gender. The authors reuse the same resumes repeatedly through this project such that names and photos of each of the candidates: attractive man, attractive woman, unattractive man, and unattractive woman is attached to each resume hundreds of times for each occupation in each city. Findings -The authors find sizable differences in the interview callback rates of attractive and unattractive job candidates. Job candidates with unattractive faces need to put in 33 percent more applications than their attractive counterparts to obtain the same number of interview callbacks. Women are preferred to men in three of the four occupations. Women, on average need put in only 91 percent as many applications as men to obtain the same number of interview callbacks.Research limitations/implications -The analysis of this paper focusses on only four different occupations. Its scope is also limited to exploring only the first part of the hiring process -obtaining a job interview. Furthermore, its fictitious applicants are all young people, approximately 25 years old. It would be useful to explore how gender and facial attractiveness affect candidates' chances of landing a job after getting an interview. Originality/value -This paper contributes to and expands the literature on hiring through China's internet job boards. It also contributes to the literature on the role of facial attractiveness in hiring. designed and ran the online photo survey and who helped to carefully manage the application submission and tracking process. The authors also wish to thank the Editors and three anonymous referees for valuable suggestions on an earlier draft. 68IJM 36,1 I. IntroductionFrom the perspective of job candidates, obtaining an interview is an essential and critical first step in the hiring process. Discrimination at this stage of the job seeking process can have profound impacts on individuals' labor market outcomes. Both rewards to, and discrimination based on, beauty, facial att...

show abstract

“…Ruffle and Shtudiner (2015), however, found that only attractive males benefited. They found that attractive females were prejudiced, postulating that such prejudice was envy based.…”

Section: Bias In Selectionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Brains versus beauty in the knowledge economy

Ford

Price

Hofmeyr

et al. 2018

SA j. hum. resour. manag.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Orientation: It is a widely held belief that attractive people generally experience an easier life and that the door to success is opened by perfect bone structure and a sparkling smile. However, attractiveness might play a far lesser role in individual’s achieving their objectives than has previously been thought. Is it possible that an individual’s qualifications may have a greater influence on the perceptions of managers who assess the suitability of a candidate of a knowledge worker?Research purpose: The study sets out to examine the relative predictive power of physical attractiveness and qualifications in the decision to hire a knowledge worker.Motivation for the study: The research was motivated by a desire to explore the presence of bias in the decision-making process when seemingly rational individuals are exposed to factors such as physical attractiveness of a job candidate and then faced with a decision on whether to hire them.Research design, approach and method: A two-phased experimental design was applied to investigate the existence and strength of the beauty premium amongst a group of managers who were provided with fictitious resumes coupled with photographs of the applicants. These managers were requested to make a hiring decision based on the information supplied.Main findings: Although results confirm the existence of a beauty premium, it was relatively weak. It indicated that qualifications have a greater influence on a manager’s perception of the suitability of a candidate to fill a position of a knowledge worker.Practical or managerial implications: The research draws attention to the possibility of bias in selection decisions and proposes ways in which such potential bias can be limited.Contribution: This study contributes to knowledge concerning the existence or otherwise of a so-called beauty premium, with particular reference to its impact in the knowledge economy.

show abstract

Are Good-Looking People More Employable?

Cited by 163 publications

References 28 publications

Now you see it, now you don’t: The vanishing beauty premium

Now you see it, now you don’t: The vanishing beauty premium

“As rare as a panda”

Brains versus beauty in the knowledge economy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About