Researchers at the London Business School conducted four separate studies looking at how physical attractiveness affected hiring decisions. The research involved more than 750 participants, and found that “participants thought that attractive individuals would want better outcomes”. As such, participants predicted that “attractive individuals would be less satisfied, [and] they reversed their discrimination pattern and favoured unattractive candidates”.

In all of the experiments, participants were shown photos of two candidates: one conventionally attractive and the other conventionally unattractive. Then they were asked a series of questions to determine the fictional peoples’ career success and job prospects.

The first study found that attractive job candidates were believed to have a greater sense of entitlement to good outcomes than unattractive candidates. In relation, the second study concluded that because of that perceived sense of entitlement, attractive candidates were less likely to be hired for less desirable low-level jobs.

When the participants were asked to pick a lab partner in the third experiment, they were less likely to pick the more attractive person. Finally, the fourth study examined the decisions of HR managers based on the two candidates – with only their physical attractiveness to consider.

“People seem either uncomfortable with, or dismissive of, the idea that attractiveness influences how we evaluate people in the workplace, but it definitely does,” Lee says. “The best way to reduce impact is to understand why and how it affects our judgments, and try to find ways to correct it.”

The best thing to do during your next job interview? Make sure you clarify that you really want the job.

Images: Drew Graham / iStock

How your attractiveness affects your career, according to experts