THE INFLUENCE OF FACIAL HAIR ON IMPRESSION FORMATION

1990 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Ann Reed ◽  
Elizabeth M. Blunk

The influence of facial hair on the perception of a job applicant by persons in business was examined in this study. Subjects were 228 persons in management positions who made hiring decisions. Subjects were shown ink sketches of six male job applicants. The sketches varied on three facial hair dimensions-clean shaven, moustached, and bearded. Sketches were evaluated on semantic differential scales. Results indicated consistently more positive perceptions of social/physical attractiveness, personality, competency, and composure for men with facial hair.

Author(s):  
Xun Li ◽  
Radhika Santhanam

Individuals are increasingly reluctant to disclose personal data and sometimes even intentionally fabricate information to avoid the risk of having it compromised. In this context, organizations face an acute dilemma: they must obtain accurate job applicant information in order to make good hiring decisions, but potential employees may be reluctant to provide accurate information because they fear it could be used for other purposes. Building on theoretical foundations from social cognition and persuasion theory, we propose that, depending on levels of privacy concerns, organizations could use appropriate strategies to persuade job applicants to provide accurate information. We conducted a laboratory experiment to examine the effects of two different persuasion strategies on prospective employees’ willingness to disclose information, measured as their intentions to disclose or falsify information. Our results show support for our suggestion As part of this study, we propose the term information sensitivity to identify the types of personal information that potential employees are most reluctant to disclose.


2003 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Altay Alves Lino De Souza ◽  
Vera Baumgarten Ulyssea Baião ◽  
Emma Otta

The present study investigated the contribution of men's facial hair to impression formation. Participants evaluated photographs of one of four versions of a man—clean shaven, mustached, goateed, or bearded—on a 7-point scale. In Study 1, participants were 106 Brazilian undergraduates (68 men and 38 women). Beardedness was associated with older age, greater responsibility, and leftist political ideas. In Study 2, respondents were 50 Brazilian personnel managers (28 men and 22 women) who made hiring decisions at different companies in the city of São Paulo. Personnel managers clearly preferred clean shaven over bearded, mustached, or goateed men as prospective employees. In a hiring situation for a conservative occupation, a man who signals disposition to conform to rules may be preferred by personnel managers over another who signals nonconformity.


2003 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 613-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Micheal L. Shannon ◽  
C. Patrick Stark

Previous research suggests that physical appearance variables may play a role in employment hiring decisions. This study examined the influence of two physical appearance variables, beardedness and attractiveness, on personnel selection. Fifty undergraduate participants were given the task of evaluating and selecting between nine equally qualified male job applicants applying for a fictitious management trainee position. A photograph was attached to each of the nine applications. Photographs differed systematically on level of beardedness and attractiveness. Results indicated that the level of attractiveness of the photographs significantly affected the evaluation of the application to which it was attached, but did not significantly affect the subjects' final selection decision. Level of beardedness of the photographs was not found to have a significant effect on evaluation of the applications. However, there was a trend in the data that suggested that bearded applicants, although evaluated equally with nonbearded applicants, were selected for management positions at lower rates. Implications and limitations of these results are also examined.


1986 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Lynn D Amhorst ◽  
J. Ann Pinaire Reed

Color value (light vs. dark) of clothing and facial expression (smiling vs. serious) were varied in photographs of six female job applicants. Male and female business persons (N = 208) judged the photographs on 14 semantic differential scales. Facial expression significantly affected evaluations of Character-Sociability characteristics. Clothing color value was more important in influencing perceptions of Potency, i.e., competence and boldness, but ‘only for male interviewers. Results indicate that clothing color may have significant but not substantial impact on hiring decisions made by male business persons.


2021 ◽  
pp. oemed-2020-106955
Author(s):  
Kim M E Janssens ◽  
Jaap van Weeghel ◽  
Carolyn Dewa ◽  
Claire Henderson ◽  
Jolanda J. P. Mathijssen ◽  
...  

ObjectivesStigma may negatively affect line managers’ intention to hire people with mental health problems (MHP). This study aims to evaluate line managers’ knowledge and attitudes concerning job applicants with MHP, and to assess which factors are associated with the intention (not) to hire an applicant with MHP.MethodsA sample of Dutch line managers (N=670) filled out a questionnaire on their knowledge, attitudes and experiences concerning applicants/employees with MHP. Descriptive analyses and multiple regression analyses were used.ResultsThe majority (64%) was reluctant to hire a job applicant with MHP, despite the fact that only 7% had negative and 52% had positive personal experiences with such employees. Thirty per cent were reluctant to hire an applicant if they knew the applicant had past MHP. Associated with higher reluctance to hire an applicant with MHP were the concerns that it will lead to long-term sickness absence (β (95% CI)=0.39 (0.23 to 0.55)), that the employee cannot handle the work (β (95% CI)=0.16 (0.00 to 0.33)) that one cannot count on the employee (β (95% CI)=0.41 (0.23 to 0.58)) and higher manager education level (β (95% CI)=0.25 (0.05 to 0.44)). Conversely, associated with positive hiring intentions was being in favour of diversity and/or inclusive enterprise (β(95% CI)=−0.64 (−0.87 to −0.41)).ConclusionsAs the majority of managers were reluctant to hire applicants with MHP, and even 30% were reluctant to hire applicants who had past MHP, these findings have major implications for social inclusion in the Netherlands, where about 75% of employees would disclose MHP at work.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 237802312110198
Author(s):  
Katherine Weisshaar

Employment interruption is a common experience in today’s labor market, most frequently due to unemployment from job loss and temporary lapses to care for family or children. Although existing research shows that employment lapses cause disadvantages at the hiring interface compared to individuals with no employment disruptions, competing theories predict different mechanisms explaining these hiring penalties. In this study, the author uses an original conjoint survey experiment to causally assess perceptions of fictitious job applicants, focusing on a comparison of unemployed applicants and nonemployed caregiver applicants, who left work to care for family, to currently employed applicants. The author examines whether disadvantages for job applicants with employment gaps are receptive to positive information (and therefore represent a form of “informational bias”) or are resistant to information (reflecting “cognitive bias”) and further assesses which types of information affect or do not affect levels of bias in fictitious hiring decisions. Results show that positive information on past job performance and social skills essentially eliminates disadvantages faced by unemployed job applicants, but nonemployed caregiver applicants remain disadvantaged even with multiple types of positive information. These findings suggest that unemployed applicants face informational biases but that nonemployed caregiver applicants face cognitive biases that are rigid even with rich forms of positive or counter-stereotypical information. This study has implications for understanding the career consequences of employment disruption, which is especially relevant to consider in light of labor market disruptions during the recent pandemic.


2005 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jos Van Ommeren ◽  
Giovanni Russo ◽  
Reinout E. De Vries ◽  
Mark Van Ommeren

The hypothesis that the sex composition of an applicant pool affects the hiring probabilities of individual job applicants was tested using gender-distinctive information on accepted and rejected job applicants in The Netherlands. The evidence supports this hypothesis, although the effect sizes are moderate. Both men and women have a lower probability of being hired when the applicant pool contains fewer applicants from their own sex.


2001 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuko Omori ◽  
Yo Miyata

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of frequency of blinking on creating a personal impression. The subjects were 88 Japanese university students, 35 males and 53 females, who rated stimulus persons on a seven-point semantic differential scale. The stimulus persons, two males and two females, were presented on a 20-second video simulating various blink rates, i.e., 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 72, and 96 blinks/min. A factor analysis of the ratings yielded three factors, interpreted as Nervousness, Unfriendliness, and Carelessness. As the frequency of the stimulus persons'blinking increased, so did the tendency to rate them as more nervous and more careless. As for Unfriendliness, there was a U-shaped relation between the frequency of blinking and the impressions formed. Present results provide evidence that frequency of blinking plays an important role in impression formation. Further implications of the findings are discussed.


1989 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jed Friend ◽  
Arnold LeUnes

Recently the issue of fairness in the recruitment, selection, and placement aspects of personnel management for professional baseball teams has been questioned. The only seemingly correct solution to the lack of minorities in sport management positions has been oriented toward developing and implementing affirmative action programs. This paper discusses an approach to affirmative action that emphasizes (a) job analysis, (b) job descriptions, and (c) prediction of managerial performance. It therefore serves as a caveat for those organizations that feel an adequate affirmative action policy, as a single entity, is the proper remedy for correcting past discriminatory hiring decisions.


1976 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 775-780 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Paull Nielsen ◽  
Anne Kernaleguen

Using a semantic differential to assess person perception, a non-random sample of 30 female university students recorded their impressions of a number of pictures of female stimulus persons. The pictures represented a systematic pairing of faces of varying levels of attractiveness, and clothed bodies of varying levels of attractiveness. The results of a 3 × 3 Latin square analysis of variance showed facial attractiveness to be a significant factor in the perception of physical attractiveness of the total unit, social and professional happiness, and social desirability. Attractiveness of the clothed body exerted a significant effect in the perception of bourgeois orientation. Pearson productmoment correlation results indicated that as level of perceived physical attractiveness increased, so did the perception of social and professional happiness and social desirability.


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