TORONTO – If you’re not getting a call back for a job interview, take a look in the mirror – it might be because you’re too attractive.
While countless studies have pointed to the professional perks of beauty – higher wages and more promotions – new research sheds light on why some good-looking people suffer in the job market.
Israeli economists posit that women applying for jobs should keep their headshots away from their resumes.
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Ben-Gurion University and Ariel University Centre scientists sent 5,300 fake resumes to more than 2,500 job vacancies – the applications were the same, except one had a photo of an attractive candidate while the others didn’t. Subjects in the headshot were graded beforehand for their attractiveness.
There were stark differences in the results between the sexes. Attractive men, not surprisingly, were more likely to receive a call back for an interview if they included a photo. Less striking men were better off not including a photo if they were hoping for an interview.
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But comely women, on the other hand, suffered at the hands of their peers working in human resources. They had to apply to 11 jobs on average before getting an interview compared to their dowdy counterparts who only had to apply for seven.
“In fact, women with no picture have a significantly higher rate of callbacks than attractive or plain-looking women,” the researcher said.
They even accuse HR professionals of being jealous in their decision to weed out beautiful women from job openings.
“We explore a number of explanations and provide evidence that female jealousy of attractive women in the workplace and the negative perception of women (but not men) who include pictures of themselves on their CVs are the primary reasons for the punishment of attractive women,” they wrote in the study’s abstract.
The study notes that the human resources sector is dominated by women – in the research, 93 per cent of those sifting through the fake resumes were female.
Initially, the lead researchers, Bradley Ruffle and Ze-ev Shtudiner thought that the “dumb-blonde hypothesis” – when people assume beautiful people are stupid – was at play. But the photos they used were also rated on perceived intelligence.
Resumes have been scrutinized for many reasons. In Canada, research has even shown that employers across the board discriminate against ethnic names on CVs.
According to Simon Fraser University, employers favour resumes with “English-sounding names” over ethnic ones, which has stifled immigrants’ ability to enter the workforce in some cases.
In an attempt to filter out potential discrimination, CVs don’t even include candidates’ names in Belgium, according to The Economist.
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