How to Take Advantage of the Corporate Beauty Contest, or, How Not to Hire Incompetent Hotties

photo by hartman045

Duke University research reveals some interesting, yet predictable, observations,

There were no evening gowns, swimsuits, or artistic talents on display, but a corporate beauty contest staged by Duke University researchers nevertheless revealed strong ties between appearance and success in the business world.

By pairing photos of the chief executive officers of large and small companies with photos of non-executives with similar facial features, hairstyles and clothing, finance professors John Graham, Campbell Harvey and Manju Puri of Duke's Fuqua School of Business found that CEOs are more likely than non-CEOs to be rated as competent looking, but less likely to be classified as likeable.

The trio found that CEOs who appear competent earn more money than less competent-looking CEOs, even though appearance is not associated with measurable differences in company profitability.

"Other researchers have found links between beauty and workers' pay, and demonstrated that politicians benefit from good looks at election time," Graham said. "We wanted to see whether appearance also plays a role at the corporate executive level."

Here's the thing...attractive people, on aggregate, make more money and get better opportunities. While anti-discrimination laws ostensibly guard against practices favoring more attractive people, for instance, can the biological drive to seek and reward beauty be consciously opposed?

Can even the most earnest person ignore what is essentially the same thing as the instinctive attraction of bees to honey?

I for one have long been a fan of blind hiring practices such as those used by the Metropolitan Opera. Symphony musician hopefuls play behind a screen for their auditions. If their playing is up to the caliber sought, they are hired. That's the end of the story. This practice dramatically cuts down on politics and the off-chance an auditioner will be unwittingly seduced by an auditionee.

Perhaps resumes and interviews should be conducted this way too. Not by law of course. Also, not for amorphously defined purposes of so-called "equality", but for the completely practical purposes of choosing the most competent person for a job! Think about it: resumes could be submitted electronically (most already are) and coded into a single format with a random numerical identifier, interviews could be conducted behind a screen with a voice scrambler. I know that all sounds absurd, but would it cut down on hiring incompetent hotties??

Seeing as this suggestion is unlikely to become a common practice, my advice is to take advantage of this research: bathe often, dress well, and you are already waaay ahead of most of your peers. It doesn't take much to be "attractive." Watch any makeover show and you will see that most of the time so-called unattractive people are just making terrible mistakes with their hair and makeup, cut, style, and/or quality of clothing, and overall presentation (like staring at their shoes, making crude jokes, mumbling, or using poor grammar).