Abstract

We investigated whether morality, competence, and attractiveness perceived from applicants’ faces affect their likelihood of being hired and whether these effects vary as a function of their gender. In two studies, participants were provided with a photo of a female or a male applicant attached to a brief CV. Applicants’ faces (Lundqvist et al., 1998) differed in the level of perceived trustworthiness and intelligence (Oosterof & Todorov, 2008), which are traits related to morality and competence respectively (Leach et al., 2007). In Study 1, respondents were asked to evaluate applicants on morality, competence, attractiveness, and to rate their likelihood of selection. Two moderated mediation analyses revealed that attractiveness mediated the effect of both morality and competence on selection decisions, but this was true only for female applicants. In Study 2, participants were instructed to rate the extent to which each applicant would behave in a competent and moral manner in his/her work, as well as his/her attractiveness and selection likelihood. While only competence had an impact on male applicants’ likelihood of being selected, hiring decisions about females were based on morality, competence, as well as attractiveness. Overall, these findings highlighted that women not only have to be (Moscatelli et al., 2018), but also to appear better than men on multiple judgment dimensions to be hired.