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ARE THERE ADVANTAGES OF BEING PHYSICALLY ATTRACTIVE IN THE

WORKPLACE?

Are There Advantages Of Being Physically Attractive In The Workplace?

An inquiry of sources
Alexa Stieg
James Madison University

Author Note
This paper was prepared for WRTC 103, section, taught by Professor Fielding.

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ARE THERE ADVANTAGES OF BEING PHYSICALLY ATTRACTIVE IN THE
WORKPLACE?
ABSTRACT
Recently, many people are found to be victims of discrimination based off of physical
appearance. This bias is especially found in the workplace. Those hiring new employees
tend to discriminate for and/or against those who are and are not physically attractive.
This is a huge problem considering that in majority of cases attraction has nothing to do
with essential job skills. It is important to be wary of this bias as students are preparing to
enter the workforce. In addition, it is important to those adults who may subconsciously
perform this discrimination and for them to realize the existence and unjustness of it.

Keywords: discrimination, appearance, physical, attraction, bias

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From the beginning of time to now, being considered an attractive person has
always had its advantages. As time progresses, people find that when it comes to the
workplace and other selective decision making, people that are attractive may have an
upper hand. According to psychology, it is human nature to subconsciously be in favor of
those people that are appealing to the eye. As an individuals brain detects something
pleasing, it releases hormones into the bloodstream that create gratifying sensations of
happiness. Those who are deemed attractive are typically associated with obtaining
positive traits such as intelligence, openness, friendliness, thoroughness, and
extraversion.
However, because of the automatic favoritism, people are judged and stereotyped
against for not being attractive. Appearance discrimination is a prejudice or
discrimination focused on physical aspects and beauty. This type of bias is important to
be aware of as it affects people everywhere, especially the work place. It is important for
the decision makers to be aware of this in order to hire those who possess the required
skills and that are best capable of performing the task of the job.

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WORKPLACE?
SOURCE A
Comila Shahani-Denning, an associate professor in the department of phycology
at Hofstra University, is the author of the scholarly article Physical Attractiveness Bias
in Hiring: What Is Beautiful Is Good. Shahani-Denning discusses two opposing
stereotypes named what is beautiful is good and when beauty is beastly. The first
stereotype, what is beautiful is good, is based on the idea that regardless of the position
of job, whether if it is high exposure or not, the more attractive the person the greater
chances they will be. In contrast to the prior stereotype, the when beauty is beastly
stereotype is that attractive females are more likely to attain female-based jobs and
unattractive females are more likely to be in masculine-based jobs. As well, this
stereotype includes the belief that people have higher expectations for an attractive
person so when an attractive person fails it is because of a lack of effort, while when an
unattractive person fails it is because they had bad luck. The what is beautiful is good
stereotype is the most common of the two. Comila Shahani-Denning effectively explains
the two stereotypes of attraction discrimination, named what is beautiful is good and
when beauty is beastly and how this discrimination is detrimental to the workplace
(Shahani-Denning n.d.).

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SOURCE B
In May 2015 Sunyoung Lee of University College London, Marko Pitesa of
University of Maryland, Madan Pilluta of London Business School, and Stefan Thau of
Singapore write an scholarly article When beauty helps and when it hurts: An
organizational context model of attractiveness discrimination in selection decisions
based on their four studies pertaining to attractiveness bias. Lee, Pitesa, Pilluta and Thau
suggest that decision makers connect competence with attractiveness in men, however,
not in women. Therefore, the more attractive the male is the more competent he is
assumed to be. Furthermore, the authors believe that attractive people may not always be
selected, depending on what the decision maker is seeking. There are two types of
interdependence that justifies why or why not an attractive candidate is favored; these are
cooperation and competition. When the decision maker needs to work with the candidate,
they favor the attractive one as they are seen to be more able to collaborate with. In
contrast, when the decision maker anticipates competition, they discriminate in favor of
the unattractive candidate as attractive males are seen as harder opponents to win against.
There are a total of 4 studies testing these hypotheses and each the studies found evidence
consistent with their theory that the interdependence (cooperation or competition)
between the candidate and the decision maker can explain when attractive men are
discriminated in favor of and when they are discriminated against. Overall, the studies
show that decision makers exhibit unvarying preference for attractive candidates. Lee,
Pitesa, Pilluta and Thau (2015) argue that these studies have proved that decision makers
are making these decisions that discriminate for and or against candidates in order to best
serve themselves (p. 25).

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SOURCE C
Deborah L. Rhode writes an inspiring and eye opening article, Hooters Hires Based on
Looks. So Do Many Companies. And Theres No Law Against It, informing society of
the ongoing discrimination based on appearance and the potential to end it. Rhodes main
claim is that attractiveness and appearance should not have such a strong hold over
educational and employment circumstances because it has nothing to do with skills or
obtaining the ability to complete the job. Rhode (2015) asserts that in order to concentrate
on promoting healthy regimes and attending to the problems that prompt the appearance
discrimination is to start to ban this type of discrimination. However, this is hard to do
because discriminating based on attraction seems reasonable when it is a tactic to attract,
please and keep customers, which many companies use. As well, Rhode (2015)
acknowledges that attractiveness is highly subjective, making it very difficult to ban
through law. Throughout the article Rhode (2015) argues that changes can happen,
despite it seeming impossible. She uses multiple examples from prior race and sex
discrimination that happened during and before the civil rights era. Rhode (2015) argues
that with determination, society can promote the end of discrimination based on looks
(Rhode 2015).

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SIMILARITIES
Both Physical Attractiveness Bias in Hiring: What Is Beautiful Is Good and When
beauty helps and when it hurts: An organizational context model of attractiveness
discrimination in selection decisions are scholarly articles that uses studies to support
the articles theories. In Physical Attractiveness Bias in Hiring: What Is Beautiful Is
Good, Shahani-Denning conducted two studies that both supported her claim that the
what is beautiful is good stereotype is the most common. Shahani-Denning explains
her first study where photographs were included in the application when applying to
college. She looked for a relationship between attractive people and the interview
evaluation and the ultimate admissions decision. Shahani-Denning concludes,
Attractiveness was significantly and positively correlated with both the interviewer
evaluation as well as the final admissions decision. In examining interviewer evaluations,
an interesting finding was the relationship between applicant gender, attractiveness and
high school rank. For males, higher rank was associated with higher interview scores
regardless of attractiveness. For unattractive women, results were similar. However, for
attractive women, interview scores were always high regardless of rank(p. 2). In her
second study, Shahani-Denning uses photographs and discovers Attractiveness was
found to impact evaluations of applicant suitability for hire, promotability and starting
salary Male and female entry-level marketing professionals benefited equally from
attractiveness(p. 2). The second article, When beauty helps and when it hurts: An
organizational context model of attractiveness discrimination in selection decisions,
contains 4 studies. In common with the studies from the first article, the studies used

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photographs included in the application. The authors as well manipulated to photograph
using computers to generate the prototype of attractive and unattractive people. Lee,
Pitesa, Pilluta and Thau (2015) found that the Four studies found evidence consistent
with our theory that candidatedecision maker interdependence can explain when
attractive men (but not women) are discriminated in favor of, as well as against. Our
results qualify past research on attractiveness discrimination by challenging the
conclusion that decision makers exhibit unvarying preference for attractive candidates(p.
25). Both articles being scholarly means that they both have many references and both of
their claims that attractiveness is overall advantageous are supported.

All three of the sources contain reasons of how this discrimination is wrong and immoral
and why it is important to stop it. In the first article, Shahani-Denning argues, making
hiring decisions based on non-job-related factors is detrimental to the overall
organizational performance(p. 1) indicating that attractiveness has no relevance to an
individuals ability to accomplish their work effectively and if someone is hired over a
person who is more qualified just because of their attractiveness, the company will not
succeed and excel as much as it could be. Furthermore, Lee, Pitesa, Pilluta and Thau
(2015) continue by explaining, Attractiveness discrimination is troublesome because
selection decisions based on criteria unrelated to work performance can lead to
suboptimal staffing outcomes and threaten organizational success (p. 15). In addition,
Rhode suggests Judgments based on attractiveness should not spill over to educational
and employment contexts where they have no socially defensible role. More effort should
focus on encouraging healthy lifestyles and addressing the weight-related problems that

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prompt discrimination (Rhode). Each of the articles hold explanations of the injustice
that appearance discrimination carries.

CONTRASTS
While both articles Physical Attractiveness Bias in Hiring: What Is Beautiful Is Good
and When beauty helps and when it hurts: An organizational context model of
attractiveness discrimination in selection decisions focus on theories and studies of
discrimination based off of attraction, Deborah Rhode concentrates on societys part in
this bias and how society has the potential and power to change it. Rhode (2015) explains
that discrimination based on appearance has a limited amount of laws banning it because
it is natural and a tactic to draw in customers (Rhode 2015). Rhode understands that A
final cluster of arguments against prohibiting appearance discrimination is pragmatic. To
many commentators, the preference for attractiveness appears natural and immutable in a
way that other forms of bias do not. Attempting to ban discrimination based on such
deeply rooted preferences strikes these observers as impractical and imprudent(Rhode
2015) . Consecutively, Rhode (2015) realizes that such intervention risks trivializing
other more serious forms of bias. In their view, allowing appearance- discrimination
claims under civil rights and disability laws will undermine these statutes effectiveness
in assisting individuals with more severe disadvantages(Rhode 2015). Despite all of the
reasons to not push forward with attempts to ban discrimination based on attractiveness,
Rhode persuades by illuminating all the past cases of civil rights and sex laws and how
in the beginning they were ignored but with perseverance they are now a norm. While the
two other articles state that discrimination is wrong and has negative results to a

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company, Rhode talks about how to stop it. Rhode promotes to ban this discrimination by
stating, Discrimination on the basis of looks is deeply rooted and widely practiced, and
there are obvious limits to how much legal and policy strategies can affect it. But the
same has been true for other forms of discrimination. And the last half-century leaves no
doubt that legal prohibitions and public activism can promote significant change(Rhode
2015) which inspires the reader. As the first two sources primarily focuses on differences
and studies of appearance discrimination, Rhodes article has a much different tone and
distillates society and the need and potential for change.

In all three articles, there are different views about females and how discrimination based
on attraction effects them. Shahani-Denning (2015) argues, attractive females are
evaluated less favorably than unattractive females (p. 1) according to the when beauty
is beastly stereotype. Conversely, in article When beauty helps and when it hurts: An
organizational context model of attractiveness discrimination in selection decisions, Lee,
Pitesa, Pilluta and Thau (2015) declare that decision makers associate attractiveness
with competence in male but not in female candidates(p. 15), meaning that woman
arent discriminated for or against depending on attraction. This contrasts with the first
article, where unattractive woman are discriminated in favor of and attractive woman are
discriminated against. As for Hooters Hires Based on Looks. So Do Many Companies.
And Theres No Law Against It, Rhode focuses on females and how they are
discriminated against because they once gave to the state of their souls they now give to
the state of their bodies(Rhode 2015). Rhode recognizes that society deem attractive
people to reflect with certain positive traits like social, industrious and good hygiene, but

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she argues that neither empirical research nor common sense suggests that women who
decline to wear nail polish or high heels are less industrious(Rhode 2015). In contrast
with the first article, Rhode states, Almost half of American women are unhappy with
their bodies, a percentage higher than a quarter century ago. After money, appearance is
womens greatest source of dissatisfaction(Rhode 2015). While the first article declares
that woman who are unattractive have more benefits, Rhode is saying that most of
woman are unhappy with their appearance, especially the unattractive ones. Each of these
articles has different viewpoints of how discrimination effect woman in the work place.

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EVALUATION SOURCE A
Shahani-Denning, the author of Physical Attractiveness Bias in Hiring: What is
Beautiful is Good, is an associate professor in the department in psychology at Hofstra
University. The credibility of the author contributes to one of the strengths of the article.
Shahani-Denning makes strong arguments throughout the article and maintains clarity.
Her claim that the what is beautiful is good bias seems fairly universal and has been
found in a variety of different cultures is supported through a study including two
decision makers from two different cultures and they ultimately choose the same
attractive person and provide them with high starting salaries. I agree with ShahaniDennings claim that attractive women are more likely to attain occupations that are more
feminine because it is human nature to associate girls with prettiness and jobs that have
been stereotyped as female (Shahani-Denning n.d.). However, because the author is a
successful woman, she may be biased when discussing womans relationship between
attractiveness and accomplishment. The article contains a large amount of references
which ultimately further strengthens the article.

EVALUATION SOURCE B
When beauty helps and when it hurts: An organizational context model of attractiveness
discrimination in selection decisions, written by Sunyoung Lee, Marko Piesta, Madan
Pilluta and Stefan Thau, is a excellent, credible and informative article that discusses the
reasons for discrimination based on appearance. . Lee, Pitesa, Pilluta and Thau (2015)
logically argue that cooperative and competitive interdependence result in opposing
patterns of attractiveness discrimination because attractiveness is associated with better

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at collaborating and a better competitor. I agree with the authors claim that the decision
maker selects the candidate solely on what will be better for themselves and their own
individual future (p. 17). Despite all of its strengths, the article is very hard to understand
because of the studies and their statistics. The authors tone is very sophisticated and
scientific, for example, Lee, Pitesa, Pilluta and Thau (2015) support their hypothesis by
explaining A mixed-effects ANOVA on perceived competence found that the interaction
between candidate sex and candidate attractiveness was significant, F(1,90) = 20.04, p < .
001, gp 2 = .18, such that the attractive male candidate was seen as more competent (M =
5.39, SD = 0.65) than the unattractive male candidate (M = 4.57, SD = 0.74), F(1,90) =
66.69, p < .001, gp 2 = .43(p. 20). Despite the difficulty it is to understand, these results
are exceptional support and create strength throughout the article. All in all, Lee, Pitesa,
Pilluta and Thau write a informative article with proper and compelling research to prove
how attraction helps and hurts a candidate.

EVALUATION C
Deborah L. Rhodes, Hooters Hires Based on Looks. So Do Many Companies. And
Theres No Law Against It, is an inspirational, emotional, and strong article that
incorporates influencing examples of previous discrimination triumphs. Rhodes (2015)
effectively argues that changes can happen despite it seeming impossible. She uses
multiple examples from race and sex discrimination. In the civil rights era, Plessy v.
Ferguson case made society separate but equal as it was assumed to be desired and
natural, but because of law and reconstruction it soon faded and became just and natural.
She continues and explains that before sex laws, only woman were allowed to serve as

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flight attendants because it was considered the norm. However, in result of the sex laws
men became able to do it as well. Rhode admits Discrimination on the basis of looks is
deeply rooted and widely practiced, and there are obvious limits to how much legal nad
policy strategies can affect it(Rhodes 2015), however she rebuts it by explaining that
the last half-century leaves no doubt that legal prohibitions and public activism can
promote significant change. Surely the values at state are worth the effort(). Rhodes
acknowledgement of the oppositions of her opinions paired with responses to prove them
wrong creates strength by giving the audience to agree with her. I agree with Rhodes that
with persistence and confidence from society, attempts to eliminate or lessen
discrimination based on attractiveness will work. However, Rhodes suggests women pay
more attention to their bodies where as attention used to go to their souls (). This claim
shows bias, as Rhodes is a female. Overall, Rhodes article full of effective arguments
and past successes in history allows for a strong and compelling article against this
discrimination.

CONCLUSION
After my inquiry into discrimination based on the exterior, my expertise on the issue has
exceptionally developed. My initial perspective that being attractive is more beneficial no
matter what the circumstances has altered due to my learning that sometimes it is not
helpful, such as in the case of competition. However, despite attractiveness being proven
to not always being beneficial, I still believe and more strongly believe that this
discrimination needs to stop. Discrimination constructed by attractiveness remains to be a

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common issue in society, especially the workforce, and it is morally wrong and with
perseverance society can strongly influence the end of appearance discrimination.

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References
Lee,S.,Pitesa,M.,Pillutla,M.,&Thau,S.(2015).Whenbeautyhelpsandwhenithurts:An
organizationalcontextmodelofattractivenessdiscriminationinselectiondecisions.In
OrganizationalBehaviorandHumanDecisionProcesses(Vol.128).RetrievedMarch3,
2016,fromhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597815000096

Rhode,D.L.(2014).HootersHiresBasedonLooks.SoDoManyCompanies.AndThere'sNoLaw
AgainstIt.RetrievedMarch3,2016,fromhttps://newrepublic.com/article/118683/whyweneed
lawprotectagainstappearancediscrimination.

ShahaniDenning,C.(n.d.).PhysicalAttractivenessBiasinHiring:WhatIsBeautifulIsGood.Retrieved
March3,2016,fromhttp://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/orsp_shahanidenning_spring03.pdf