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Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful: Acknowledging appearance mitigates the “beauty is beastly” effect

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  • Johnson, Stefanie K.
  • Sitzmann, Traci
  • Nguyen, Anh Thuy

Abstract

Physically attractive women are discriminated against when applying for masculine sex-typed jobs, a phenomenon known as the beauty is beastly effect. We conducted three studies to establish an intervention for mitigating the beauty is beastly effect and to determine mediators and moderators of the intervention. As expected, physically attractive women were rated higher in employment suitability when they acknowledged that their sex or physical appearance is incongruent with the typical applicant for a masculine sex-typed job. Acknowledgement increased inferences of positive masculine traits, allowing the female applicant to be perceived as more suitable for the job, while reducing perceptions that she possessed countercommunal traits, decreasing the violation of her gender role. Finally, sexist beliefs interacted with the acknowledgment intervention, such that the acknowledgement intervention reduced the negative relationship between hostile sexism and employment suitability and increased the positive relationship between benevolent sexism and employment suitability, relative to the control condition.

Suggested Citation

  • Johnson, Stefanie K. & Sitzmann, Traci & Nguyen, Anh Thuy, 2014. "Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful: Acknowledging appearance mitigates the “beauty is beastly” effect," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 184-192.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:125:y:2014:i:2:p:184-192
    DOI: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2014.09.006
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Heilman, Madeline E. & Stopeck, Melanie H., 1985. "Being attractive, advantage or disadvantage? Performance-based evaluations and recommended personnel actions as a function of appearance, sex, and job type," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 202-215, April.
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