Sexism and beautyism in personnel consultant decision making

Abstract

Each of 72 professional personnel consultants rated the suitability of 1 bogus applicant for selected masculine, feminine, and neuter jobs, and for alternatives to employment. Each resumé was identical with the exception of the systematic variation of the applicant's sex and the omission or inclusion of a photo depicting the applicant as physically attractive or unattractive. As predicted, personnel decisions strongly reflected the operation of sex-role stereotypes. These factors similarly affected consultants' recommendations of alternatives to employment and consultants' causal attributions of applicants' projected occupational successes and failures. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1977 American Psychological Association.