The Effects of Physical Attractiveness on Job‐related Outcomes: A Meta‐analysis of Experimental Studies

Abstract

We report the findings of a meta-analytic review of experimental studies concerned with the biasing effect of physical attractiveness on a variety of job-related outcomes. In support of implicit personality theory, attractive individuals were found to fare better than unattractive individuals in terms of a number of such outcomes. The weighted mean effect size, d, was .37 for all studies. In addition, tests for moderating effects showed that (a) the attractiveness bias did not differ between studies that provided low versus high amounts of job-relevant information about the targets, (b) the same bias was greater for within-subjects research designs than for between-subjects designs, (c) professionals were as susceptible to the bias as were college students, (d) attractiveness was as important for men as for women, and (e) the biasing effect of attractiveness has decreased in recent years. Implications of these findings are considered.Over the past few decades, numerous individual studies and several meta-analytic reviews have shown that physical attractiveness is important in the U.S. More specifically, the same studies have demonstrated that there is a positive correlation between physical attractiveness (referred to hereinafter as attractiveness) and a host of outcomes. For example, attractiveness has been shown to influence, among other variables, initial impressions (We thank the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this article.Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Meymi Hosoda,

Factors Influencing Subjective Orthodontic Treatment Need and Culture‐related Differences among Chinese Natives and Foreign Inhabitants

“…Another study also showed no gender difference in the population seeking orthodontic treatment (Burder et al, 1994). A meta-analysis found that a positive relationship existed between facial attractiveness and interpersonal popularity, as well as others' favourable evaluation of one's personality, social behaviour, and intellectual expression (Hosoda et al, 2003). Thus, psychosocial impact of malocclusion may also be a factor that affected subjective orthodontic treatment needs (Langlois et al, 2000).…”

Orthodontic Appliances and Esthetics

“…Attractive individuals are ascribed more social competence than unattractive individuals; other studies have demonstrated that this same trend is exhibited for ratings of effectiveness, adjustment, and intellectual competence [13]. While some researchers have questioned the generalizability of the Dion et al study, overall, meta-analytic analyses demonstrate that individuals who are rated as being more attractive are evaluated more positively than unattractive individuals, and achieve improved life outcomes when compared to those rated as less attractive [14]. These findings generalize to the employment setting.…”

“…The advantage associated with attractiveness was conferred despite the amount of other job-relevant information presented to the reviewers such as performance reviews, interviews, etc. [14] Similarly, Jackson et al [15] demonstrated an association between attractiveness and competence in the workplace and extended these findings to show that the attractiveness of individual had an even stronger effect on job outcomes if that individual's performance was low [15]. Agthe et al [16] not only examined the influence of attractiveness on hiring decisions, but also evaluated the participants' preference for social interaction with individuals in the workplace of differing attractiveness.…”

“…These findings generalize to the employment setting. In their meta-analysis, Hosoda et al [14] assessed the effect of attractiveness on several job-related outcomes such as hiring, promotions, and performance evaluations. They concluded that the physical attractiveness of a person was consistently advantageous to that individual and there was a direct relationship between attractiveness and several of the career outcomes for both males and females.…”

The Impact of Awareness on Reducing Social Bias in Behavior

“…These attractiveness and ingroup biases exist over a range of outcomes (e.g., Beehr & Gilmore, 1982;Cash & Kilcullen, 1985;Hosoda, Stone-Romero, & Coats, 2003;Johnson, Podratz, Dipboye, & Gibbons, 2010) and are robust, with meta-analytic estimates of d = .61 for attractiveness (Feingold, 1992) and d = .36 for ingroup favoritism (Mullen, Brown & Smith, 1992). Moreover, these biases were selected due to their applicability to various sample populations (i.e., neither is dependent on participant characteristics like race, gender, or age) and given previous evidence that they can exist among people reporting a desire to be unbiased and a perception of having behaved fairly (Axt, Nguyen, & Nosek, 2017).…”