It Pays to Dress the Part

Last time I talked about women dressing well for the business environment and how it can have benefits. Looking professional has its perks. These next few passages are some statistics on women who dress well. I have highlights of each article on how looking the part literally pays off.

This article talks about how a professor of Psychology and Neuroscience from Princeton looks at stereotypes on appearance. They used examples like Susan Boyle. She also talks about how people of lower status register differently in the brain. She also explains why people use stereotypes and how age plays a role in forging stereotypes and for women being attractive.

Belluck, P. (2009). Yes, Looks Do Matter. New York Times,

pp.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/fashion/26looks.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Being an attractive person affects a person when applying for a job. However being an attractive woman can have a disadvantage when seeking jobs that are more intended for masculine traits. They found that gender and the idea of appearance influences affects personal decisions in the job application process. Women had the most pressure when seeking jobs.

Heilman, M.E. & Saruwatari L.R. (1979). When Beauty is Beastly: The Effects of Appearance and Sex on Evaluations of Job Applicants For Managerial and Nonmanagerial Jobs. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 23, 360-372.

They looked at how appearances affect their practice. Being healthy and working out makes your performance better. They state that weight and appearance are very strongly correlated, and that they have more authority on their health. Appearance is also connected with social life and gives a sense of willpower.

Hutson, D. J. (2013). “Your body is your business card”: Bodily capital and health authority in the fitness industry. Social Science & Medicine, 90, 63-71.

This article looks at income of women and compares it to their husband’s wages on physical characteristics of being blonde. They looked at white women. They also found that blonde women are considered more attractive especially in the media. Blonde women end up getting paid to an equivalent to one more year of extra schooling.

Johnston, D. W. (2010). Physical appearance and wages: Do blondes have more fun?. Economic Letters, 108, 10/12.

This article uses research from Cornell University on how the way you look can affect a person’s income. For example if a female gains an additional sixty-four pounds can make her wages go down nine percent. Being Obese can make a person’s wages do down twelve percent. A woman who is five feet seven inches will make $5,250 more a year vs someone who was five inches shorter. The average height of a CEO is six feet tall vs the average five feet nine American male.

Sindberg, L. (2009). Think Looks Don’t Matter? Think Again. Forbes,pp. http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/05/appearance-work-pay-forbes-woman-leadership-body-weight.html

So as one can see by reading these articles in detail, appearances do have an affect on salary. I hope this article enlightens you that buy how you look in an interview can already determine how much your salary could already be affected before the interview starts.