美貌是职场女性的负累吗？| 双语哈评
2019/11/16 10:00:00 哈佛商业评论

    

     华盛顿州立大学的助理教授利亚·谢帕德(Leah D.Sheppard)和科罗拉多大学博尔德分校的副教授斯特凡妮·约翰逊(Stefanie K.Johnson)虚构了一篇关于公司裁员的报道，并随文公开了宣布裁员的高管照片。她们安排研究对象阅读该报道，然后给照片中高管的诚实度打分，并决定是否应解雇他们。当高管是位相貌出众的女性时，人们会认为她不甚诚实，更应被解雇。结论是：美貌是职场女性的负累。

     谢帕德：我们在为实验虚构的报道中，引用了该公司管理层的话，明确表示了裁员是经济状况而非组织内部的失误导致。我们通过Mechanical Turk为实验招募了来自美国的男性和女性参与者。Mechanical Turk是一个在线平台，该平台上用户的教育水平通常高于平均水平。参与者被分为四组，每组会看到不同发言人的照片。照片分别是相貌出众的女性、相貌平凡的女性、相貌出众的男性和相貌平凡的男性。我们先让参与者对照片中高管的相貌打分。为了保持一致性，高管均为穿职业装的白人。此外，尽管每位参与者在实验中只会看到一个人，但在每个相貌组别中，我们都会使用两位不同男性和女性的照片，以排除人物的其他特征或照片本身对结果的影响。

     随后我们询问参与者对高管所言的信任程度及高管看起来是否诚实可靠。在后续研究中，我们从美国大学生中招募了参与者，并且只关注女性高管。我们也询问了该高管是否应被辞退。研究发现，与相貌平凡的女性同级相比，美貌的女性被认为没有那么诚实，缺乏领导者应有的信任，更应该被解雇。

     HBR：那男性呢？

     我们发现不管男性发言人是相貌出众还是平凡，大家对其发表的裁员言论的反应几乎一致。在某些情况下，大家甚至会认为英俊的男性比相貌平凡的男性更诚实。

     作为女性，这让我很生气!

     其实对女性来说也不全是坏消息。我们研究发现相貌平凡的女性在诚实和守信方面的得分均高于两种类型的男性。

     职场上，相貌出众的女性有任何优势吗？

     在另一项研究中，我们让参与者凭感觉给照片中人物的能力打分。结果表明，无论性别，相貌出众的领导者都被认为更有能力。因此即使美貌的女性被认为不那么诚实，她们也与其他正面的特质相关。在组织中的某些岗位上，比如销售，被认为不太诚实可能是一个优势。从更广泛的意义上讲，我们从现有研究中得知相貌出众的人一生中往往会更顺利，比如他们读书时会更受老师的关注，在择偶时有更多选择，工作中薪水更高等。

     是什么导致了这种对相貌出众女性的不信任？

     我们怀疑这是邪恶诱惑的隐喻：大家存在一种潜意识的焦虑，即美丽的女人会利用自己的容貌来操纵别人，尤其是男人。这个想法可能来自进化论。历史上女性一直用美貌来竞争与男性接触的机会，进而实现阶层流动。如今的研究依旧表明，尽管男性认为漂亮的女性不那么值得信赖，但仍然比女性更重视伴侣的外貌。

     人们有此反应或是因为高管宣布坏消息的方式导致？

     在另一实验中，我们要求参与者对发表正面公司新闻，比如宣布新工作的发言人进行打分，但发现对女性美貌的负面看法仍然存在。我们还引入了担任不同职务的女性。先前的研究表明，与像公关人员这种普遍认为是女性主导的职位相比，人们更反感相貌出众的女性担任偏男性化的职位，如高级行政职位。但在我们的研究中，参与者甚至对从事“典型女性职位”的美貌女性的可信度也表示怀疑。

     是否可能有种族的影响？

     我们没有研究参与者的种族如何影响他们的选择，但这可能是未来研究的有趣方向。因为我们知道性别刻板印象对白人及黑人女性的影响不同，对白人及黑人男性亦如此。例如黑人女性和白人男性因武断行为而被抵制的经历少于白人女性和黑人男性。

     我们有什么办法可以抵制这些偏见？

     确实有。在参与者阅读这些虚构文章之前，如果让他们感到情感上的安全，对女性美貌的偏见就消失了。参与者此时认为相貌出众的女发言人诚实可靠，应像相貌平凡的女性一样留下工作。

     当然，在商业背景下解决这个问题很棘手。我们倾向于认为自己在工作时已隔绝了性别意识， 但是有很多影响我们无法掌控，甚至可能没意识到。一般的偏见意识训练会基于性别、种族、性取向以及有时是宗教，来对抗歧视，但往往不包括对相貌出众、相貌普通或肥胖人士的偏见。我们可能会意识到这些偏见的存在，但是对于讨论或纠正该偏见仍持沉默态度。

     招聘中的情况如何？

     招聘过程中应尽可能长时间地保持匿名。例如可以引入第三方给简历或应聘者分配ID号，这样他们的姓名就不会透露其性别或种族情况。招聘人员也不可能在谷歌中搜索候选人，并找到能够显示其性别、种族、相貌和其他个人信息的照片。在面试阶段，组织应确保多人与候选人互动，从而抵消个人偏见和偏好。

     我不认为自己相貌有多出众，但是上班时我会努力着装得体并化妆。我应该改变吗？

     没有必要，除非打扮让你感到不适。尽管办公室着装越来越休闲，但大多数公司仍然鼓励员工着装规范。我很反感就如何“解决”这个问题向女性提供建议，因为让女性弱化自己的美貌(如盘发髻或戴眼镜)会使她们感到羞愧或尴尬。相反，我可能建议她们采取更多已知有效的行动去建立信任，如热情、关切和举止坦荡。但甚至这也是值得商榷的，因为这也是让女性承担改变的责任，而问题实际上是多方共同造成的。

     你想在这个领域中继续研究什么？

     我想知道当人们认识了一位相貌出众的女性，相貌带来的信任危机是否会消失，或者危机是否会持续，因为我们与她的互动方式会受偏见影响，进而影响她对我们的反应，最后反而证实了我们最初的怀疑。我也很好奇政治领域会出现怎样的情况。我们投票支持自己并不真正了解的领导人——仅仅根据电视上看到的画面决定是否信任他。我们是否对容貌更出众的女性候选人持有偏见？

     你是如何对这个话题感兴趣的？

     我的兴趣与我的个人经历无关。但是我观察到美貌对女性来说往往是一件棘手的事情。相貌出众显然会带来好处，但是不管是男性或女性，如果被大家认为炫耀自己的相貌或性吸引力，就会遭受非议。女性领导者已经面临很多双重障碍，而这是另一个障碍。很不幸，但这是现实。

     英文原文

     Leah D. Sheppard, an assistant professor at Washington State University, and Stefanie K. Johnson, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, mocked up articles about company layoffs that included photos of the executives announcing the cuts. They then had study participants read the articles, rate the honesty of the leaders pictured, and decide whether they should be fired. When the executive shown was a woman, people found her to be less truthful and more worthy of termination if she was also highly attractive. The conclusion: For women in business, beauty is a liability.

     Sheppard: The articles we created for our experiments quoted a company leader explaining that the layoffs were due to economic conditions rather than some failure within the organization itself. We recruited both male and female participants in the United States via Mechanical Turk—an online platform on which people are usually more educated than the general population—divided them into four groups, and showed each group a different photo of the spokesperson announcing the cuts. Some saw a highly attractive woman, others a less-attractive woman, some a highly attractive man, others a less-attractive man. We’d previously asked other people to rate the attractiveness of the executives pictured, and for consistency, all were white and professionally attired. We also used photos of two different men and women in each category of attractiveness—to make sure it wasn’t something else about the person shown or the photo itself that was causing the effect—though each study participant saw only one person.

     Then we asked our study participants a few questions: How much did they trust the explanation the executive gave? Did he or she seem honest? And in a later study, which recruited subjects from a pool of U.S. university students and focused just on female executives, we also asked whether the leaders should be fired for their role in the layoffs. We found that the beautiful women were perceived to be less truthful, less trustworthy as leaders, and more deserving of termination than their ordinary-looking female counterparts.HBR: What about the men?We saw almost no difference in people’s responses to the attractive and less-attractive male spokespersons making the same statement about layoffs. In some cases the handsome men were even seen as slightly more truthful than average-looking ones.

     As a woman, that makes me so mad!The news isn’t all bad for women: The less-attractive women were rated higher for honesty and trustworthiness than both types of men in our study.

     Are there any benefits to being a beautiful woman in the workplace?In a separate study we had the people in the photos rated on perceived competence and found that regardless of their gender, the highly attractive leaders were deemed more competent. So even if beautiful women are seen as less truthful, they’re associated with other positive qualities. There might also be certain roles in which being seen as less forthcoming could be an advantage, at least in the eyes of the organization—sales, for example. More generally, we do know from existing research that attractive people tend to fare better throughout their lives: They get more attention from teachers in school; they have more romantic choices; they earn higher salaries.

     What might be driving this mistrust of attractive women?We suspect it’s the trope of the evil seductress: a subconscious anxiety among people of both sexes that beautiful women will use their looks to manipulate people, mostly men. This might have evolutionary roots; attractiveness has historically been a tool that women have used to compete for access to men and, through them, economic mobility. Even today research shows that men still place a higher value on their partners’ physical attributes than women do, even though they view prettier women as less trustworthy.

     Could this be a reaction related only to how executives announce bad news?In another experiment we asked people to rate spokespeople presenting positive organizational news—an announcement of new jobs—and found that the female beauty penalty persisted. We also presented women in different kinds of roles. Previous research had suggested that people react more negatively to attractive women in jobs seen as more masculine, such as high-ranking executive positions, as opposed to more typically female-dominated roles, such as PR officers. But our study participants had doubts about pretty women’s trustworthiness even in the latter case.

     Could race be a factor?We didn’t look at how the race of study participants might have affected their choices. But that could be an interesting direction for future research, because we do know that gender stereotypes play out differently for white and black women, as they do for white and black men. For example, black women and white men experience less backlash for assertive behavior than white women and black men do.

     Is there anything we can do to counteract these biases?Yes. When we primed study participants to feel romantically secure before showing them the mocked-up articles, the female beauty penalty went away. The attractive spokeswomen were seen as just as honest, trustworthy, and deserving of keeping their jobs as the less-attractive ones.

     Of course, this is tricky to address in a business context. We tend to assume that when we go to work we turn our sexual selves off. But there’s a lot of spillover that you can’t necessarily control and might not even be aware of. The bias-awareness training we get usually addresses discrimination based on gender, race, sexual orientation, and sometimes religion. But it tends not to include bias against either very attractive people or those who might be seen as unattractive or overweight. We might recognize that those biases exist, but there’s a reticence about discussing or correcting them.

     What about hiring?The recruitment process should be as anonymous as possible for as long as possible. For instance, you can have a third party assign ID numbers to résumés or applications so that people’s names don’t give any clues to gender or race. That also will make it less likely that someone involved in hiring will Google the candidates and find photos that show their gender, race, and level of attractiveness, and other personal information. At the interview stage, organizations should make sure that lots of people interact with each candidate to balance out individual biases and idiosyncrasies.

     I don’t think of myself as highly attractive, but I do make an effort to dress well and put on makeup when I go to work. Should I stop?Not necessarily, unless these activities make you feel uncomfortable. Though offices are becoming more casual, most still have norms that encourage putting effort into your appearance. I also hate to give advice to women about how to “fix” this, because telling them to downplay their beauty—by putting their hair in a bun or wearing glasses—can make them feel ashamed or embarrassed. Instead I might advise them to engage in more behaviors that we know build trust—being warm, caring, and transparent. But even that is problematic because it’s putting the onus on women to change when this is really part of a larger issue.

     What more in this realm do you want to study?I’d like to know whether this effect goes away once people get to know a beautiful woman or if it tends to last because it changes how we interact with her, which then changes how she responds to us in a way that confirms our initial suspicions. I’m also curious about how this plays out in the political sphere. We vote for leaders that we don’t really get to know personally; we just know what we see on TV and decide if we trust them or not based on that. Are we biased against more-attractive female candidates?

     How did you get interested in this topic?My interest isn’t related to any specific personal experiences I’ve had, but I’ve observed that attractiveness is generally a tricky thing for women to navigate: There are clearly benefits to being beautiful, but you also get a lot of criticism from both men and women if you’re viewed as flaunting your beauty or sexuality. Female leaders face a lot of double binds. This is another. It’s unfortunate, but it’s a reality.

     阿尼娅·温茨科夫斯基(Ania G. Wieckowski)| 访

     马冰仑 |译 刘筱薇 | 校 腾跃 | 编辑

     原文参见《哈佛商业评论》中文版2019年11月刊。

     原文参见《哈佛商业评论》中文版2019年11月刊

    

     2019年11月刊

     点击订阅

     《哈佛商业评论》

     newmedia@hbrchina.org

    

    公众号ID：hbrchinese

     长按二维码，订阅属于你的“卓越密码”。

    http://weixin.100md.com
返回 哈佛商业评论 返回首页 返回百拇医药