The Risks of Looking Too Pretty in the Workplace

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There is a reason we don’t just roll out of bed and drive to work: We want to look good. Attractive, well-dressed, and ready for success. Employees across the country spend as much time as necessary to ensure that when they enter their workspace, they are ready to make a good impression, both mentally and physically. But is there such a thing as looking too good for work? The research may surprise you.

Susanne Braun et al. (2012) examined the impact of beauty on leadership style in a piece famously entitled “Is Beauty Beastly?”¹ The team found that although attractive people generally enjoy many positive benefits, beauty may adversely impact the selection of female leaders.

Braun et al. explain that transformational leadership style includes intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, and serving as a role model through idealized influence. In contrast to transactional leaders, who are focused on task completion, rewards, and punishments, transformational leaders inspire their staff to reach goals beyond what is expected. Regarding the impact of beauty, they found that attractiveness negatively impacted women—but not men—who had a transformational leadership style but did not impact loyalty or trust toward either male or female transactional leaders.

The Perils of Pretty

In more recent research, Stefanie K. Johnson et al. (2018) examined the impact of personal appearance during different stages of women’s careers. In a piece entitled “The Perils of Pretty,”² the researchers acknowledged the reality that attractive individuals are typically presumed to have a wide range of positive traits such as competence, warmth, extraversion, and intelligence. In the workplace, research has shown that attractive people are more likely to be hired and to be treated better, score higher in performance evaluations, and make more money. Yet there can be downsides, too, especially for women.

Johnson et al. note that attractive women may be judged negatively when applying for positions perceived as “masculine.” Citing the “beauty is beastly” effect, they suggest that the incompatibility between a masculine job role and the “perceived femininity” of an attractive woman generates an inference that she will lack the skills required to do the job, prompting a perceived gender-role violation that can cause others to react to her negatively.

Johnson et al. recognize another downside of beauty in the workplace: same-sex competition. Women may feel competitive with other women who are more attractive, leading them to denigrate or avoid them. In addition, people tend to attribute the success of attractive same-sex peers to luck rather than ability, as compared to unattractive same-sex peers or good-looking opposite-sex peers.

Objectification

Johnson et al. explain that attractive women tend to be more objectified than unattractive individuals of either gender, which is professionally problematic because sexualized women are often seen as “objects” rather than complete human beings. They cite research finding that women were rated as less intelligent when viewed in a fashion that shows more of their body than their face (Loughnan et al., 2010). Unfortunately, objectification may also make it more challenging for women to find caring, effective mentoring relationships, which are a vital part of career advancement.

Self-objectification is a risk as well and can impact work performance, demonstrated through research showing that when experiencing a sexualized gaze from confederates (of both genders), women performed less competently on a set of math problems, as well as on Graduate Record Exam standardized test items.

Fortumately, Johnson et al. also note that self-objectification decreases with age, with women between 20 and 39 years reporting the highest level, and women over 70 reporting the lowest. They also recognize ways to mitigate self-objectification such as becoming more aware of its negative consequences, confronting any personal body-related issues, and participating in community activities unrelated to appearance.

Physical attractiveness is only one aspect of the workplace experience. Kind, compassionate, gracious behavior can outweigh appearance biases, allowing professionals to look and act their best, but also perceive the best in others.