
Attractive women who attach photos to resumes are less likely to get interviews - vette982
http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/04/04/girl-on-girl-crime-too-pretty-costs-you-the-job/
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dkarl
There's a complication with this study, which is that it seems really weird in
the first place to attach a photo to a resume. (Maybe this is different in
Israel -- anyone?) A photo is out of the ordinary and prompts people to think
up an explanation for it. One possible explanation HR staff and potential
interviewers might come up with is that the person relies on their looks as a
career asset. That assumption is easier made about women than about men
because it better fits gender stereotypes, which could account for the
discrepancy without bringing the gender of the HR workers into the
explanation.

(A picture of an unattractive person would not provoke suspicion that the
person expects to get by on their sex appeal instead of their performance, so
"plain" women and men would not be stigmatized for attaching a picture.)

Because attaching a picture prompts the recipient to wonder why, and possibly
to make different assumptions about the applicant based on the explanation
they come up with, I think the situation is too complicated for it to be
possible to draw conclusions from the results. I don't disagree with the
researchers' explanation, though. Even when we try to be fair, the idea of an
attractive person getting by on their looks is more viscerally offensive, and
threatening, when the person is of the same sex. Men might think it's lame and
shitty if a woman relies on her looks, but if a man is rising in the office by
charming and chatting up female managers, it goes beyond "lame" and becomes a
personal threat. Ditto for women. Both sexes "appreciate" sex appeal as part
of a charming personality when it appeals to us and stigmatize it as dangerous
when it competes with us.

~~~
mmahemoff
The cited Economist article (which this article all but photocopies) says the
study took place where it's supposedly the norm.

<http://www.economist.com/node/21551535> "...when job hunters include photos
with their curricula vitae, as is the norm in much of Europe and Asia."

That it's still the norm in Europe is news to me! Certainly not in the UK.

Of course, limiting geography means you're just as likely to be studying
culture differences as the underlying topic.

~~~
dkarl
Wow... I can't think of any reason for the practice except to facilitate
discrimination on the basis of looks. Assuming it has been attacked on that
basis, I wonder what the justification for continuing it is.

P.S. Apparently I trust HN too much to give me the best article about the
topic. The article in The Economist would have been a much better submission.

~~~
why-el
I know that in Morocco for instance, a potential employer would wanna know if
a woman puts the veil (not niqab, veil only covers the hair) or not,
eventually preferring women who don't.

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stcredzero
Reminds me of a friend from college. She's now an astrophysicist. It seemed to
me she had some trouble being taken seriously, because she was drop-dead
gorgeous. Demure girl next door looks with a body that was swimsuit model
material. (Even sans airbrushing)

I think some people saw her, learned what her major was, then concluded it was
too good to be true. Also, it was hard for a lot of guys to think with 100%
efficiency in her presence.

~~~
milesskorpen
> ... Also, it was hard for a lot of guys to think with 100% efficiency in her
> presence.

I wish people thought more highly of men. I think that this kind of sentiment
is inexcusable in the workplace. We're (mostly) all adults here. People are
perfectly capable of working around attractive people.

~~~
karamazov
Actually, there are studies[1] showing the opposite: it's difficult for men to
think straight when around attractive women.

[1] for example:
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103109...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103109001164)

~~~
badclient
That's equivalent to citing studies showing that women are indeed weaker when
it comes to math or computer programming.

The counter argument then is that it is _because_ of society that they are
weaker. The same could be argued here: it is _because_ of society's
conditioning of men that they can't think straight when around attractive
women.

~~~
marshallp
There are differences between males and females in pretty much every species
on earth, I don't think you can ascribe "society" to every gender. As a man,
natural instincts to flirt with the attractive women can get you a sexual
harassment charge - when women do it to attractive men it's fine with
everyone. Some part of the man's brain is going towards stopping his natural
instincts which can lower work performance.

~~~
danso
I think you are mistaken to think that being a man, in itself, is what causes
flirting behavior to be hit with a sexual harassment complaint. The greater
factor is that the man in the equation is likely to be the one in power, and
thus the woman has a reason to feel threatened if she rebuffs him.

~~~
stcredzero
To be fair, that's quite subtle. Power relationships are often invisible and
masquerading as something "light." It's easier to understand if you've been on
the short end of the stick a bunch of times.

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philh
> The researchers’ unavoidable—and unpalatable—conclusion is that old-
> fashioned jealousy led the women to discriminate against pretty candidates.

I could believe that women tend to discriminate subconsciously against
unattractive women; though I don't think the reverse finding would have
surprised me either. But did the study actually show that men don't
discriminate against attractive women?

edit: the paper is here, it seems to be open access:
<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1705244>

From skimming through, it looks like they don't compare whether the hirer is
male or female. But

* Employment agencies prefer no-photos, but don't discriminate between attractive and plain women.

* Companies hiring for themselves don't discriminate between no-photos and plain women, but discriminate against attractive women.

Which is evidence in favour of jealousy: the people who won't work with them
don't feel threatened. The paper is considerably more thorough than this
though.

~~~
sliverstorm
Alternative theory:

I don't know many people who attach a photo to a resume. So if I see a photo
on your resume, and you are attractive, I'm probably going to feel like you
_know_ you are attractive and are trying to win points with your
attractiveness, which will _cost_ you points in my book.

~~~
philh
Apparently both with-photo and without-photo are common in Israel, where the
study was conducted.

If that theory was true, I would expect attractive males and attractive
females both to be discriminated against.

~~~
sliverstorm
Possibly, although most guys don't seem to be particularly in tune with which
other guys are attractive.

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krakensden
Here is a link to the actual article: <http://www.economist.com/node/21551535>

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mahmud
Please submit the original Economist article.

Forbes has this habit of taking other people's articles and slapping ads on
them. They're robbing original authors of eye balls.

<http://www.economist.com/node/21551535>

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ap22213
I'm guessing that it's the same for men (when viewed by other men).

I've recently started applying around using both my linkedin account and also
a text version of my resume. Since linkedin is nice enough to show me who has
looked at my profile recently, I often see which companies and which person
has looked. Because I'm a programmer, often it's a guy reviewing my profile.

I don't have enough data points to be conclusive, but it's looking like I get
better results from my text resume (that is, the companies that don't show up
as having viewed my linkedin). I was starting to wonder if the photo on my
linkedin was turning people away, since the content was generally the same.

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alfiejohn_
Attach photos to a resume? Is this a common thing to do in the US?

~~~
jordanb
It's never done in the United States.

It's rather common apparently in Europe though, even expected in some
countries, like Germany.

On the subject of "crazy things about job-hunting in Europe," I recently
learned that in France, it's expected that you hand-write your cover letter,
and HR departments employ people who supposedly can figure out a person's
personality and work ethic based on their handwriting.

