
Are Attractive People More Employable? - linhir
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/are-attractive-people-more-employable/
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Jun8
The big question is how they quantified attractiveness in their study, it
seems to be one of those "I know it when I see it" things.

Attaching a photo to a resume is a huge no-no in the US, but I've seen many
people check applicants' photos online (OK, I admit, I've done it, too).

 _Other things being (almost) equal_ , I see no problem in hiring a more
attractive man/woman applicant over a less attractive one. I think attractive
people in general have more self esteem and make friends more easily, both
good traits in the workplace. Why discriminating based on intelligence is OK
while doing it based on beauty such a taboo?

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etherael
I imagine it's likely because intelligence will actually influence your
capacity to do your job in the vast majority of cases, whilst appearance will
not. I understand in instances where this is not the case, such as hooters
waitresses, they do actually openly discriminate based on attractiveness.

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Jun8
I wasn't talking about Hooter's waitresses and other such jobs, e.g. playmates
:-)

Why do you think that in the vast majority of cases appearance will not
influence your output? I think this is a clear fallacy: Although you
attractiveness may not influence the work you do, the _additional_ qualities
you develop over the years because your attractive, like high self-esteem, may
be _very_ important and relevant to the workspace.

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etherael
Hold on, you say that it's a clear fallacy that your attractiveness does not
influence your output, and then you directly claim afterward that your
attractiveness may not influence the work you do? That was my original point,
so it seems much like you're saying I'm wrong and then restating my original
point.

The problem I have with regards to your secondary argument, that
attractiveness contributes to self esteem and is thus important and relevant
to the workplace as a contributing factor towards building soft skills is that
it equally promotes simple narcissism.

Full disclosure; I think that we may just be getting over a long standing
hangover where "touchy feely" attributes of a person were valued over their
actual aptitude and intellect and I'm quite happy not to see us sliding back
into that particular arena and being surrounded by pleasant but incompetent
people

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Tycho
The most interesting thing I ever learnt in Psychology was how attractiveness
is judged/recognized and how it affects peoples' reactions. For instance, one
study showed that people can _smell_ a more attractive person from their
clothes alone. Like 'smell these shirts, and tell us which one you suspect has
the most attractive owner.' And other things like how attractive people are
less likely to be found guilty by juries, or tend to be given lighter
sentences.

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Charuru
This is why diversity is good. Even in HR (needs more men).

