Reducing Lookism in the Workplace

Lookism issues have been studied in the fields of economics, social science, physiology, and business. Studies have shown that physical appearance affects employers' judgment about the quality of an employee. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the effects of lookism on career development in organizations. In addition, this chapter discusses the strategies for reducing lookism in the workplace from a human resource development perspective and provides four strategies for reducing lookism. First, legislation should include and address issues of physical attractiveness. Second, diversity education and training should be provided to students, employees, and employers. Third, diversity management should be practiced in the workplace. Fourth, appropriate employment processes should be adopted. Future research should study lookism over a wider range of occupations across different cultures. In addition, future studies should develop theories and conceptual frameworks to support and explain current issues of lookism in the workplace.

Beauty premium or beauty penalty in sharing accommodation situations based on lay theories

Purpose Limited research has paid attention to the physical attractiveness stereotype in peer-to-peer sharing accommodation settings. Since the high-risk situations in sharing accommodations, this paper aims to exam whether beauty premium is still relevant in peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation. Design/methodology/approach The mixed method, including 2,506 secondary data analysis and two scenario experiments, is carried out to test the research framework. Findings The results show that both beauty premium and beauty penalty exist in the e-commerce context. Excessively high attractiveness and plain looking of hosts are likely to decrease consumers’ booking decision while moderately attractive hosts will stimulate more booking behaviors. Moreover, perceived trustworthiness mediates the effect of physical attractiveness on booking decision. Additionally, similarity between hosts and consumers plays a moderating role in the relationship between physical attractiveness and perceived trustworthiness. Research limitations/implications This study reveals the physical attractiveness stereotype effects in P2P accommodation and carry implications to P2P platforms and hosts for providing moderately attractive profile photos, enhancing trustworthiness and similarity between hosts and consumers. Further studies can investigate the robustness of the findings as well as more possible reasons for its occurrence. Originality/value The research provides a clearer understanding of physical attractiveness stereotype effect in peer-to-peer sharing accommodation platforms. Besides, the linkage between physical attractiveness and perceived trustworthiness is dynamic; a high host – consumer similarity weakens the negative impact of both excessively high attractiveness and plain looking on consumers’ perceived trustworthiness.

Physical Attractiveness Biases Judgments Pertaining to the Moral Domain of Purity

Research on the Beauty-is-Good stereotype shows that unattractive people are perceived to have worse moral character than attractive individuals. Yet research has not explored what kinds of moral character judgments are particularly biased by attractiveness. In this work, we tested whether attractiveness particularly biases moral character judgments pertaining to the moral domain of purity, beyond a more general halo effect. Across four preregistered studies ( N = 1,778), we found that unattractive (vs. attractive) individuals were judged to be more likely to engage in purity violations compared with harm violations and that this was not due to differences in perceived moral wrongness, weirdness, or sociality between purity and harm violations. The findings shed light on how physical attractiveness influences moral character attributions, suggesting that physical attractiveness particularly biases character judgments pertaining to the moral domain of purity.

Misplaced Intuitions in Interventions to Reduce Attractiveness-Based Discrimination

Individuals and organizations are increasing efforts to address discrimination. Non-experts may lack awareness of or are resistant to scientifically-informed strategies for reducing discrimination, instead relying on intuition. Five studies investigated the accuracy of non-experts’ intuitions about reducing discrimination concerning physical attractiveness. In Studies 1a-1c (N = 902), participants predicted the effectiveness of six interventions to reduce attractiveness-based favoritism on a judgment task. Studies 2a-2b (N = 6,292) investigated the effectiveness of these interventions. While two interventions reduced discrimination, intuitions were poorly aligned with actual results; fewer than 1% of participants identified the combination of interventions that did versus did not impact judgment, and responses were more likely to be below than above chance when predicting each intervention’s effectiveness. Though follow-up work should investigate the accuracy of intuition in other forms of discrimination, the current results further stress the need for greater development and adoption of evidence-based strategies for combatting discrimination.

Psychological factors of parental burnout of fathers and mothers

The study of parental burnout of fathers as well as mothers is relevant, since it may be the source of family trouble in general. The purpose of the study is to identify the factors of parental burnout of fathers and mothers. It is assumed that there are multidirectional correlations between the intensity of parental burnout components and parental sets, the attitude of spouses to the family role, and the consistency of the family functions of fathers and mothers. The study was carried out on a sample of parents of full families in Saratov, raising biological children (N = 61, 40 women (aged M = 32), 21 men (M = 33.9)). The applied methods include the questionnaires "Parental Burnout" (I. N. Efimova); "Role Expectations and Claims in Marriage" (N. A. Volkova), "Parental Attitude Research Instrument " (E. S. Schaefer and R. K. Bell, adapted by T. V. Nescheret and T. V. Arkhireeva), the questionnaire on marital satisfaction (V. V. Stolin, T. L. Romanova, G. P. Butenko). The largest number of correlations between the parameters of parental burnout and parental sets, the attitude of spouses to the family role and family functions have been revealed in the sample of mothers. It has been found out that in both samples the level of "emotional exhaustion" is interrelated with the parental predisposition to excessive strictness towards the child. However, the emotional exhaustion of mothers is more mediated by their dependence on the family and low self-assessment as a parent, whereas fathers’ burnout is due to the focus on the child and the desire to accelerate their development. The level of "depersonalization" in the sample of mothers correlates with the level of their concentration on the child, the consistency of family functions ("emotional and psychotherapeutic", "social activity", "physical attractiveness of the partner"), and marital satisfaction. In the sample of fathers, it correlates with the scales related to the sphere of marital relations (physical attractiveness of the partner, the degree of the father’s involvement in family affairs and marital satisfaction). The degree of the "parental achievements reduction" in the sample of mothers is associated with the balance of "intimacyseparateness" or its lack in the family system; in the sample of fathers it is connected with the availability or lack of verbal contact with the child and the father's acceptance of the child’s natural development. The applied aspect of the problem under study consists of the possibility of using the results in the practice of advisory services.

Physical Disability Affects Women’s but Not Men’s Perception of Opposite-Sex Attractiveness

Physical appearance influences our perceptions, judgments, and decision making about others. While the current literature with regard to the perceptions and judgments of nondisabled people’s attractiveness is robust, the research investigating the perceived physical attractiveness and judgments of physically disabled individuals is scarce. Therefore, in the current study, we investigated whether people with physical disabilities are perceived by the opposite sex as more or less attractive relative to nondisabled individuals. Our results, based on over 675 participants, showed a positive effect for women’s attractiveness ratings of men with physical disabilities, but not men’s attractiveness ratings of physically disabled women. Moreover, social desirability bias was positively associated with attractiveness ratings of physically disabled individuals, meaning those with higher tendency to be viewed favorably by others rated physically disabled individuals more attractive. Finally, our results revealed that attractiveness ratings of individuals with physical disabilities are positively associated with extroversion and empathy in both men and women, and positively with agreeableness and negatively with neuroticism in women. In conclusion, our study showed women rate men with physical disabilities as higher on attractiveness than nondisabled men, which is also influenced by their social desirability bias.

Gender Gaps in Deceptive Self-Presentation on Social-Media Platforms Vary With Gender Equality: A Multinational Investigation

Deceptive self-presentation on social-media platforms appears to be common. However, its prevalence and determinants are still largely unknown, partly because admitting such behavior is socially sensitive and hard to study. We investigated deceptive self-presentation from the perspective of mating theories in two key domains: physical attractiveness and personal achievement. A truth-telling technique was used to measure deceptive self-presentation in a survey of 12,257 adults (51% female) across 25 countries. As hypothesized, men and women reported more deceptive self-presentation in the domain traditionally most relevant for their gender in a mating context. However, contrary to lay beliefs ( N = 790), results showed larger gender differences in deceptive self-presentation in countries with higher gender equality because there is less gender-atypical (relative to gender-typical) deceptive self-presentation in these countries. Higher gender equality was also associated with less deceptive self-presentation for men and women worldwide.

Post-treatment physiological effects, adverse effects and complications after the selected aesthetic treatments. Review of the literature

Aesthetic treatments are performed in order to improve physical attractiveness, well-being, and to eliminate skin defects. These procedures are also associated with physiological post-treatment effects, side effects and complications. The aim of the article was to discuss selected aesthetic treatments with their typical complications and to present the types of natural post-treatment effects and dangerous side effects. Knowledge of the causes and occurrence of undesirable effects after various aesthetic treatments allows to increase awareness of the risks associated with the performance of such procedures.