Mismatch of looks and brains may let you down in jobs market

ATTRACTIVE people might seem to have hit the jackpot in the evolutionary lottery, but when it comes to job hunting, they do not hold all the winning numbers, research suggests.

Cambridge University has discovered that a pretty face can actually prevent people from gaining a job interview if it is not complemented by a good education.

Likewise, more visually challenged candidates could end up struggling to be hired if they went to a good university.

Experts at Judge Business School, Cambridge, believe the phenomenon occurs because hirers become confused by candidates who do not fit into normal expectations. Attractive people are generally expected to be better educated, and more successful while the opposite is true for unattractive people. When applicants do not follow the pattern, recruiters assume they will be a bad fit for both high and low-status positions.

Christopher Marquis, Sinyi professor of Chinese management at Cambridge, said: “Our findings suggest the inconsistent signals sent by (conflicting) cues lead to more uncertainty for the evaluator and so a lower likelihood of that applicant being selected.”

For the study, the researchers sent 2,095 fictitious CVS to employers in China, where headshots are included in job applications. The resumes were completed as if from eight different candidates who varied in sex, university status and attractiveness.

The team received 193 callbacks from companies and found a “striking pattern”. The four most successful candidates had either a combination of lower university status and lower attractiveness or higher university status and higher attractiveness. In contrast, the four least frequently called-back applicants had lower university status and higher attractiveness, or higher university status and lower attractiveness.

The team believes good-looking people from elite educational institutions send out “unambiguous signals of competence” but both traits must be there to succeed.

The study will be published in the American Journal of Sociology.