Hiring Practices Influenced by Beauty

http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/press/pressitem.asp?ref=1539

Birmingham, U.K. – December 06, 2007 – A new study published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences finds that the attractiveness of interviewees can significantly bias outcome in hiring practices, showing a clear distinction between the attractive and average looking interviewees in terms of high and low status job packages offered.
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Female interviewers were found to allocate attractive looking male interviewees more high status job packages than the average looking men. Female interviewers also gave more high status job packages to attractive men than to attractive women. Average looking men also received more low status job packages than average looking women. Male interviewers did not differ in the number of high or low status job packages that were given to attractive looking interviewees of either sex, though the male interviewers gave out more low status job packages overall, irrespective of the sex of the interviewee.

I admit I'm surprised that the "Male interviewers did not differ in the number of high or low status job packages that were given to attractive looking interviewees of either sex", although males tending to be more competitive, it's not surprising that "the male interviewers gave out more low status job packages overall, irrespective of the sex of the interviewee", although I can't claim I had ever thought about that aspect of the situation.

However, since the article also sited an increased electrodermal response (EDR), showing increased emotion, when a male interviewer assigned the low status job packages to the attractive female candidates, it wouldn't be interesting to know whether things might be different if the males were in a natural setting, and not being part of an experiment.