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Physical Attractiveness and What It Means in Politics and the Workplace
Physical attractiveness is “the degree to which a person’s physical features are considered aesthetically pleasing or beautiful” [1]. Within the world we live, it is a leading factor to what influences us to believe what people in power say. As a whole, we look to those who are attractive because in some sense, their physical appearance makes them more credible. This is most prevalent in the world of politics. Not only does the appearance of a person influence our voting personality, but it also leads into the average workplace and who employers hire.
Within the world of politics, voting for who we think should be the leader of our free world or our county has a lot to do with the candidate’s appearance and their physical attractiveness. The more attractive a candidate is, the more likely the population views them as knowledgeable and persuasive – even though a lot of can be misinformed [2].
The Halo Effect is very prevalent within this category. It allows our evaluations of others to be thought of as a reflection of our inability to see the difference between the actual characteristics of the candidate at hand. A lot of the time, this leads to errors that occur automatically below the level of conscious information we process [3]. Within the context of attractiveness, the audience seems to be most attracted to the candidates who are baby-faced. The familiarity and attractiveness of their “character-based inferences” exert onto the candidates’ chances of winning votes with the public [4].
Women within the world of politics are mainly scrutinized by the way they look and have their looks compared to what they deliver on the platform of politics. They are judged by what they wear, their makeup, as well as their physicality. Ultimately, women are more subjected to criticism when it comes to being in the world of politics and attractiveness more so than their men counterparts. On the other hand, men if one is slightly more attracted than their opponent, they are more likely to win the popular vote [5].
As concluded, the political world is a den for society to get caught up in the aesthetics of a person rather than listening to what they actually have to offer information wise. This leads into how the same topic – physical attractiveness – can affect the workplace as well.
The consideration of physical attractiveness comes a lot from the entry-level positions. This is the time when hiring managers are sizing up the individuals who will represent their company. Anything from attire to their communication skills are all being refined to the very end (Subhani, 2016). Within two separate articles, the reader was informed one thing – the more attractive you are, the better chance you have of landing the job. Even though Human Resources and the hiring managers will not say this, the studies show that if you are an attractive individual, you will be highly considerable to the employer – even if the role does not require interacting with the public (Farnen, 2016).
These findings suggest that our society is run by the thought of individuals basing their important decisions on the physical aesthetics of someone higher up. In the world of politics, we see that the more attractive person gets their voice heard and has the most followers. In the world of business and work, we see that hiring managers tend to hire those who they think will demonstrate their company in a positive light - based on their looks.
- ^ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_attractiveness
- ^ http://apr.sagepub.com/content/44/2/353.full.pdf+html
- ^ http://goallab.nl/publications/documents/Van%20Leeuwen,%20Veling,%20van%20Baaren%20Dijksterhuis%202009%20Attractiveness%20and%20Imitation.pdf
- ^ http://www.people.vcu.edu/~bverhulst/pubs/VerhulstLodgeLavine2010.pdf
- ^ http://mic.com/articles/101592/study-shows-how-politics-affects-physical-attraction-and-why-it-matters#.c74w4bXJd