Personnel Selection
Today, many job seekers and companies meet online through websites like LinkedIn. Recent research shows that people’s ratings of potential employees based on their LinkedIn profiles are stable over time and predictive of career success. Profiles that are longer, contain a picture, and have more connections are rated most positively.
Although most employers have learned to guard against discriminatory hiring practices, some sources of influence are difficult to regulate. Consider physical appearance. Except for certain types of work (such as modeling), beauty is not rel- evant to job performance. Yet people in general tend to favor others who are attrac- tive. Does this bias operate in hiring situations? To answer this question, Cynthia Marlowe and others (1996) presented a set of job application folders—including résumés and photographs—to 112 male and female managers of a financial insti- tution. Believing they were evaluating prospective employees, each manager rank ordered four equivalent and qualified applicants: two men and two women, one of each of whom was highly attractive. The result: Physical appearance had a large impact, with 62% of managers selecting an attractive applicant as their top choice. Other research has confirmed that human resource professionals show a preference for applicants who are attractive. In fact, an applicant may be adversely affected merely by a scar or stain on the face—which steals attention, distracts the interviewer, and results in less positive outcomes
