TITLE:
The Impact of Attractiveness on Retail Managers’ Decisions: Labor Market Discrimination When Hiring Salespeople
AUTHORS:
Zeev Shtudiner
KEYWORDS:
Beauty, Labor Market, Discrimination, Salespeople
JOURNAL NAME:
Modern Economy,
Vol.10 No.11,
November
21,
2019
ABSTRACT: This paper investigates the role of physical attractiveness
in retail managers’ decisions about hiring salespeople. Using data on
attractiveness and the potential employment qualifications of 30 candidates, we
found that retail managers prefer to hire candidates who are more physically
attractive. This beauty premium can be explained by our findings on the
positive correlation between candidates’ attractiveness and the perceived
presence of traits essential for becoming a successful salesperson, such as
charisma, kindness and persuasiveness. We also found that beauty plays a more
important role for female candidates, from the earliest stage of the hiring
process. No difference was found between the beauty premiums in the decisions
of male and female retail managers. When this study’s results are coupled with
results from previous studies demonstrating that an employee’s attractiveness
has been found to influence both performance and behaviors of customers and
managers, the managerial relevance of the attractiveness effect becomes
apparent. Based on our findings, we recommend that retail managers remain
vigilant about the potential for intentional or unintentional biases based on
physical appearance when hiring employees.