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The Success Aesthetic: How Beauty Wins Over the Workplace

An ugly fact we face every day is that our faces face scrutiny. In a fiercely competitive corporate world where social networking, skills, experience, and education are all in question, how do you get an edge? All things held equal, your aesthetic features could tip the scales in your favor. If you are beautiful, you succeed. Right?

Hot.

An attractive individual has a 72.3% chance at receiving a callback after an interview. This might not indicate whether they ultimately received the job, but it certainly shows people are favored if they look conventionally attractive.

This is reinforced by an Italian study of hiring practices. Researchers sent out over 10,000 nearly identical resumes, switching only the names, addresses, and photos attached. The results were resounding. Overall, 30% received a call to interview. Of attractive men, 47% received a call. Of attractive women, 54% received a call. Even more revealing is the fact that only 7% of women deemed ‘unattractive’ were invited to interview.

There’s also a substantial sum of data that reveals attractiveness as an influencing factor for salary and general well-being.

Not.

The fact that, in general, we treat attractive people more favorably is a good thing, right?

Well, London Business School research questions that assumption. Subjects were shown pictures of potential candidates for jobs. They were asked to say how likely they would be to hire each person for a generally favorable or unfavorable job. As you might expect, attractive people were more likely to be ‘hired’ for a favorable job. The catch? Attractive people were less likely than unattractive people to be selected for conventionally unfavorable jobs.

Studies like these are benign in their comparison of physical attractiveness to career success, yet they reveal a truth that reinforces the necessity of beauty in society. There are many studies that link beauty obsession with teen depression. The social consequences of being deemed ‘unattractive’ can be severe.

Among American adults in a survey, 99.7% believe a healthy smile is socially important. Commercials, movies, posters, and politicians are all nicely polished for photo shoots. Tanning booths exist.

Beauty is baked into American culture.

And it has worked its way into the office as well. Back in the 1800s when Charles Darwin invented the wheeled desk chair we know today, would he have guessed that our workplaces would evolve to accommodate beauty?

The ugly truth might just be that attractive people typically have an easier time in their careers. What you do with that information is relevant only to yourself.

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