Researc by Bradley J. Ruffle, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev - Department of Economics and Ze'ev Shtudiner, Independent shows that an attractive photo may give men's resumes and edge. But for women, it's better to be faceless.
Job applicants in Europe and in Israel increasingly imbed a head shot of themselves in the top corner of their CVs. We sent 5312 CVs in pairs to 2656 advertised job openings. In each pair, one CV was without a picture while the second, otherwise almost identical CV contained a picture of either an attractive male/female or a plain-looking male/female. Employer callbacks to attractive men are significantly higher than to men with no picture and to plain-looking men, nearly doubling the latter group. Strikingly, attractive women do not enjoy the same beauty premium. In fact, women with no picture have a significantly higher rate of callbacks than attractive or plain-looking women. We explore a number of explanations and provide evidence that female jealousy of attractive women in the workplace is a primary reason for the punishment of attractive women.
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