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What about tech? Are physically attractive software engineers more likely to receive jobs and promotions than engineers of equivalent skills and experience?
by HenryKissinger 6y ago
What about tech? Are physically attractive software engineers more likely to receive jobs and promotions than engineers of equivalent skills and experience?
- jpxw 6y agoAlmost certainly yes, unless tech is different from the job market at large. An interesting point on attractiveness in the job market is that people who are extremely unattractive tend to also perform very well. It’s mildly unattractive people who do the worst. My pet theory is extremely unattractive people have to work their asses off to make enough money to be sexually competitive in any way.
- biggestdecision 6y agoExceptions stand out from the crowd, good and bad. If you are a competent dev, nobody cares about that if no one notices you. If people notice you, they'll next notice if you are competent or not.
- afuchs 6y agoThis carries the assumption that competence is something that is purely objective. I find it more likely that what is perceived as competence is still subject to bias.
- sukilot 6y agoHow do you know the perform very well? I'd guess extremely unattractive people don't find sexual mates regardless of wealth.
- typingmonkey 6y agoGood questions, I would like to see some data for that. I assume it is like a reverse bias where someone who looks like garbage is expected to be a good programmer.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- mc32 6y agoHonestly I don’t see a profession where people considered attractive in that location would do worse than their unattractive peers, all other things being equal.
- HenryKissinger 6y agoUnattractive programmers spending more time honing their skills than taking care of their appearance?
- mc32 6y agoI guess I was thinking natural attractiveness, rather than that achieved by preening and such.
- YetAnotherNick 6y agoI feel even in that respect attractiveness improves people's confidence and will likely work in their favour.
- sukilot 6y agoOr making themselves unhealthy which harms their performance.
- montenegrohugo 6y agoCircus freaks.
- cl0ckt0wer 6y agoIt seems yes, being attractive will work in your favor in a wide variety of situations. https://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/orsp_shahani-denning_spring03.pdf https://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/orsp_shahani-denning_spring03.pd...
- StLCylone 6y agoSadly, it likely helps in compensation and promotion opportunities.
- belval 6y agoProbably, but this is a rabbit hole all in itself. All aspects of life are dictated by others' perception of us, our work and our personality being signals just as appearance is. In an ideal world, we could simply uncheck these biases and do blind promotions and detach a person's work output from his or her face, but it doesn't work like that. Even worse attractiveness is subjective and thus hard to control for. You can usually identify racism because the person will have traits that puts him/her in that category. It's much harder for subjective beauty. TLDR: Probably yes, but don't expect it to go away anytime soon.