There are actually so many biases at play in the workplace and also most unfairly in the legal system itself. These acts of bias account for the unmeritocratic or unfair advantage that some groups have over others. One of the most pervasive and prominent biases is hardly ever acknowledged, namely the beauty bias. The bias in favor of physically attractive people is robust. This is disgusting because good looking people could have it so easy for them.
Attractiveness biases sadly have been demonstrated in such different areas as teacher judgments of students, voter preferences for political candidates, and also jury judgments in simulated trials. Even though that all of these biases are wrong, they happen all the time in our daily life. There are actually reasons why it happens. These are 5 of them.
- Physical Attractiveness had a significant influence on judges’ sentencing. The more unattractive the criminal, the higher the sentence. Or conversely, the more attractive the criminal, the lower the sentence.
- Mock jurors generally sentenced unattractive criminals significantly higher than attractive criminals.
- Generally, attractive people are perceived as more intelligent, more socially skilled, more appealing personalities, more moral, more altruistic, more likely to succeed, more hirable as managers, and more competent.
- Attractive people tend to have better physical health, better mental health, better dating experiences, earn more money, obtain higher career positions, chosen for jobs more often, promoted more often, receive better job evaluations, and chosen as business partners more often, than unattractive people.
- Attractiveness bias is rarely conscious.
Sources: The Law Project.