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Hacking attractiveness biases in hiring? The role of beautifying photo-filters

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Re: Hacking attractiveness biases in hiring? The role of beautifying photo-filters

#141

Post by bobbylarrybobby »

nostromo wrote: post #81
projektfu wrote: post #16

When I was in England for a short time I was tasked with screening candidates for employment (software engineers). As an American, I was taken aback by most of the resumes including photos. That's just not done here in the US. Some American HR departments might even send back your resume and ask you to resubmit it without a photo. It seems to be standard practice in Europe, perhaps to convince you that the person int…

There's a lot of data out there showing that attractiveness, fitness (as in, not obese), and tallness are all massive biases in the workplace -- much bigger in many studies than biases around gender and ethnicity even. I don't know why these forms of identity are almost entirely ignored, while we obsess over others. Imagine if tech companies published the height, weight, and facial symmetry of their workforces, like…

I've wondered if much of the gender discrimination in the workplace can be attributed to height discrimination, as women tend to he shorter. Is there data on how men and women fare adjusted for height?

(This is obviously separate from any sexual harassment etc in the workplace -- I'm referring to compensation and promotions)

Re: Hacking attractiveness biases in hiring? The role of beautifying photo-filters

#142

Post by c0nducktr »

dragonwriter wrote: post #96
albntomat0 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because something isn't a legally protect group, doesn't mean discriminating against that group is acceptable.

> Just because something isn't a legally protect group, doesn't mean discriminating against that group is acceptable. For private action, it literally does mean that it is legally acceptable. What people find acceptable other than legally is subjective and will have infinite differences of opinion.

> For private action, it literally does mean that it is legally acceptable.

I don't believe the parent poster was implying it wasn't legally acceptable. They were making a value statement.

Re: Hacking attractiveness biases in hiring? The role of beautifying photo-filters

#143

Post by symlinkk »

version_five wrote: post #28
projektfu wrote: post #16

When I was in England for a short time I was tasked with screening candidates for employment (software engineers). As an American, I was taken aback by most of the resumes including photos. That's just not done here in the US. Some American HR departments might even send back your resume and ask you to resubmit it without a photo. It seems to be standard practice in Europe, perhaps to convince you that the person int…

I worked in business consulting and we always put resumes/bios with out pictures (professional headshots) in proposals. Many startups have founder / leadership pics and bios on their website Most "professionals" like lawyers have a headshot on their website. Every political campaign features the face of the candidates. Almost everyone who uses linkedin has a pic Really, western institutional job applications are pret…

> seeing what a person looks like is an important part of working with them

Why?

Re: Hacking attractiveness biases in hiring? The role of beautifying photo-filters

#144

Post by hammock »

et-al wrote: post #85
nostromo wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of data out there showing that attractiveness, fitness (as in, not obese), and tallness are all massive biases in the workplace -- much bigger in many studies than biases around gender and ethnicity even. I don't know why these forms of identity are almost entirely ignored, while we obsess over others. Imagine if tech companies published the height, weight, and facial symmetry of their workforces, like…

Being unattractive is not a protected group: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_group

Should it be?

Re: Hacking attractiveness biases in hiring? The role of beautifying photo-filters

#145

Post by hammock »

nostromo wrote: post #81
projektfu wrote: post #16

When I was in England for a short time I was tasked with screening candidates for employment (software engineers). As an American, I was taken aback by most of the resumes including photos. That's just not done here in the US. Some American HR departments might even send back your resume and ask you to resubmit it without a photo. It seems to be standard practice in Europe, perhaps to convince you that the person int…

There's a lot of data out there showing that attractiveness, fitness (as in, not obese), and tallness are all massive biases in the workplace -- much bigger in many studies than biases around gender and ethnicity even. I don't know why these forms of identity are almost entirely ignored, while we obsess over others. Imagine if tech companies published the height, weight, and facial symmetry of their workforces, like…

>There's a lot of data out there showing that attractiveness, fitness (as in, not obese), and tallness are all massive biases in the workplace -- much bigger in many studies than biases around gender and ethnicity even.

Not only are they biases, there is some data that shows attractiveness, height, etc actually correlate with competency. It might be a true stereotype (self-fulfilling or not).

Re: Hacking attractiveness biases in hiring? The role of beautifying photo-filters

#146

Post by philliphaydon »

projektfu wrote: post #16

When I was in England for a short time I was tasked with screening candidates for employment (software engineers). As an American, I was taken aback by most of the resumes including photos. That's just not done here in the US. Some American HR departments might even send back your resume and ask you to resubmit it without a photo. It seems to be standard practice in Europe, perhaps to convince you that the person int…

In NZ/AU we don’t include photos or personal information. When I moved to Singapore I was stocked. People put photos. Birthday. Family. Current Salary. Address. Long cover letters.

Re: Hacking attractiveness biases in hiring? The role of beautifying photo-filters

#147

Post by daenz »

AlwaysRock wrote: post #105
daenz wrote: post #13

>Both male and female applicants whose photos were filtered were perceived as more competent A tale as old as time. Politicians who are attractive have a huge perception advantage. And political campaigns that use actors (who are almost by definition attractive) appeal to these same competence biases.

Haha. Yet somehow we get old wrinkly people running the country.

Many of those "old wrinkly people" were in fact quite attractive in their early political careers.

Re: Hacking attractiveness biases in hiring? The role of beautifying photo-filters

#148

Post by polski-g »

daenz wrote: post #13

>Both male and female applicants whose photos were filtered were perceived as more competent A tale as old as time. Politicians who are attractive have a huge perception advantage. And political campaigns that use actors (who are almost by definition attractive) appeal to these same competence biases.

Not just politicians!

https://twitter.com/robkhenderson/status/1346512327353491461...

Re: Hacking attractiveness biases in hiring? The role of beautifying photo-filters

#149

Post by burnished »

mrshadowgoose wrote: post #124
burnished wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because that starts to verge on telling you who to find fuckable instead of who to treat as a peer. Plus the level of baggage is completely different. I'm surprised at your surprise.

I think you've mistakenly scoped my point to solely "the dating game". Physical discrimination in that scope if of course, completely understandable, and IMO completely okay. However, it's been shown repeatedly that "fuckability" results in better treatment in most other aspects of one's life, including things like job opportunities, career progression, and general treatment in non-romantic social interactions. All o…

Whats hypocritical about it?

What are you possibly going to do about it that isn't already covered under a more general and better fitting "lets find ways to treat each other fairly that minimizes the opportunity for our monkey brains to fuck up and associate traits and characteristics with superficial features. there has got to be a way to do this, jesus christ"?

By focusing on just that aspect, fuckability, you imply that there is something different about this trait that needs special attention outside of finding ways to deal with each other fairly despite the tendency to judge based on appearances. There isn't a way that doesn't start getting weird immediately.

Re: Hacking attractiveness biases in hiring? The role of beautifying photo-filters

#150

Post by golemiprague »

rybosome wrote: post #54
altdataseller wrote: post #4

Does being attractive really help you in getting hired in engineering positions? I would understand client-facing/sales jobs, but unsure it would help in engineering roles

Being attractive helps you in everything. Humans have a fundamental positive bias towards those they perceive as attractive. At the risk of sounding arrogant, let me share my personal experience. Over a period of a year in my early thirties, I became more conventionally attractive by: purchasing clothes from StitchFix (a styling service), getting my hair cut regularly by a stylist, adopting a regular grooming routine…

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