Handsome men have more trouble getting jobs, psych study shows

 

Being handsome might not always be a good thing, particularly when you’re applying for a job and the person in charge of hiring sees you as a threat.

Perceived competency

 

According to a study published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, because attractive men are perceived as being more competent, they’re seen as competition. 

 

On the other hand, more attractive women are seen as more incompetent, keeping in line with the “dumb blonde” stereotype.

 

“One thing that we found was that attractive males are always seen as more competent than unattractive males,” said Marko Pitesa, one of the study’s authors. “Both among men and women, there was a perception that more attractive men were more competent.”

Halo effect

 

Dubbed the “halo effect” in psychology, this happens when people take one aspect of another person—in this case, their physical attractiveness—and use it as a sort of proxy to reach an overall conclusion about that person’s character.

 

However, this perception of competence works against attractive men when the person who’ll be doing the hiring feels that the man could become competition in the workplace. You want competent allies in the office but at the same time, you don’t want to be outperformed by a coworker. — TJD, GMA News