You may presume that good looks are a natural advantage for men. However, a recent study reveals that good looks don’t always help, at least not in job interviews.

“It’s not always an advantage to be pretty,” says Marko Pitesa, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland. “It can backfire if you are perceived as a threat.”

Interestingly, in Pitesa’s study, it was male attractiveness in particular, rather than female beauty, that made the most difference. If the interviewer expected to work with the candidate as part of a team, then he preferred good-looking men. However, if the interviewer saw the candidate as a potential competitor, the interviewer discriminated in favor of unattractive men.

In the first experiment, 241 adults were asked to evaluate fictional job candidates based on fake qualifications and experience, in an online setting.

Men evaluated men and women evaluated women. Interviewers were primed to either think of the candidate as a future co-operator or competitor, and they were given a computer-generated headshot that was either attractive or unattractive.

“Kind of attractive and average, maybe slightly below average,” Pitesa clarifies — no supermodels.

A second experiment involved 92 people in a lab. They were asked to evaluate future competitors or partners in a quiz game, based on credentials that included sample quiz answers, and they saw similar headshots. The patterns of discrimination based on perceived self-interest was the same.

Another test opened up to include men interviewing women and women interviewing men. There was still a preference to cooperate with the attractive man and compete against the unattractive man.

A final experiment used photographs of actual European business school students, and found the same pattern. The results suggest that interviewers were not blinded by beauty, and instead calculated which candidate would further their own career.

“The dominant theoretical perspective in the social sciences for several decades has been that biases and discrimination are caused by irrational prejudice,” Pitesa says. “The way we explain it here, pretty men just seem more competent, so it is actually subjectively rational to discriminate for or against them.”

On a deeper level, she adds, the behavior remains irrational, since there’s no evidence that a real link exists between looks and competence.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【适得其反】shìdé qífǎn backfire to have the opposite result from the one you intended

【歧视】qíshì discrimination prejudiced or prejudicial outlook or treatment

你可能会认为长相英俊帅气的男人有天生的优势。但一项新的研究表明，美貌并不总是奏效，至少在找工作时如此。

“美貌并不总是优势，如果老板认为你对他是一种威胁的话，可能会起到适得其反的作用，”马里兰大学的助理教授马克奥▪皮特萨说。

有意思的是，皮特萨的研究认为，英俊帅气的男性最容易被区别对待，而不是女性。

如果面试官期望和候选者在一个团队工作的话，那么他比较青睐帅哥。

不过，如果面试官把候选者看作潜在的竞争对手的话，面试官偏袒长相不出众的男性。

在第一个实验中，241名成年人被要求在网上根据虚假的资历和经验来评估虚构的求职者。

男性评男性，女性评女性。

面试官们提前接到指令，要么把候选者看作是未来的合作人，要么把候选者看作是竞争对手，他们用电脑生成头像，把头像分为英俊帅气和没有吸引力两类。

皮特萨解释说,“分为长相帅气、长相一般甚至有点难看两类，没有超模那么出众的。”

第二组实验在实验室进行，实验对象92人。在问答游戏中，让他们根据个人简历、测验答案、个人头像，来评估未来的竞争对手和合作伙伴。

基于自我利益的偏向模式是相同的。

另外一项测试包括男性面试女性，女性面试男性。

人们仍然倾向于与有魅力的男人合作，与没有魅力的男人竞争。

最后一个实验使用了真实的欧洲商学院学生的照片，发现了相同的模式。

结果表明，面试官并没有被美貌迷惑双眼，而是衡量哪位候选人会对自己的职业生涯有帮助。

皮特萨说：“几十年来，社会科学的主流理论观点一直认为，偏见和歧视是由非理性偏见造成的。”

“我们的结论是，帅气英俊的男人看起来能力更强，这样的看法实际上是区别对待帅哥主观合理的体现。”

她还说，在更深层面的意义上，这种主观行为是非理性的，因为没有证据证明外表和能力之间有联系。

(chinadaily.com.cn)