An examination of person-job fit: The effects of physical attractiveness and job type on organizational selection

The lack of fit model (Heilman, 1983) was revised, tested, and supported as a model of physical appearance bias in organizational selection. Re-titled as the lack of fit model-revised (LOF-R), this model incorporated the meta-analytic findings of Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo (1991), Feingold (1992), and Zuckerman, Miyake, & Elkin (1995), which all indicated that attractive individuals are perceived as more socially competent than are physically unattractive individuals. The present study extended this personality inference to a behavioral intention level (i.e., an organizational hiring context) by proposing and supporting the hypothesis that physical appearance biases may be a function of the perceived fit between the social competence requirements of a job and the perceived social skills of the applicant. The LOF-R was tested by examining the various steps (i.e., the fit assessment, performance expectation, and hiring recommendation) that have been outlined, but not previously tested in full, by Heilman. The LOF-R was supported by showing that physically attractive applicants, in jobs requiring high (but not low) levels of social competence were, (a) recommended for hire more often than were unattractive applicants, (b) expected to perform at a higher level than were unattractive applicants, and (c) perceived as more representative of successful employees (as indicated by a test of the conjunction fallacy) than were unattractive applicants. The LOF-R was further supported by the finding that participants' perceptions of the applicant's social competence mediated the relationship between applicant appearance and hiring decision for the high, but not the low, social competence jobs. Qualitative analyses supplemented the quantitative results and provided additional evidence for the role of appearance and perceived social competence in hiring situations. In summary, these results support the basic tenants of Heilman's lack of fit model, and provide evidence for the LOF-R as a viable model of physical appearance biases in organizational selection.