The Effects of Facial Beauty in Personnel Selection: A Field Work in Retail Sector

The perception of facial beauty and how it affects personnel selection by recruiters has long been debated by psychologists, anthropologists and even human research management and development specialists. In this research, a field work in the retail sector was carried out to determine whether or not facial beauty has any effects in personnel selection. T his research is a combination of an astute literature review and surveys. In the survey, 50 photographs of both hired and unhired people were rated by 50 st udents of psychology, busin ess law, accounting and finance as well as Post Graduate Diploma in Management students. The other was a field work in the retail sector where employers were interviewed using a semi - structured interview format. The evaluation co mprised of a Likert type scale of 5 (with 5=very attractive, 4=attractive, 3 = normal, 2=unattractive and 1= very unattractive). Following the evaluation, preferred photographs and employed staff were compared for a trend in the selections. Based on the resu lt of this research, there is a significant, meaningful relationship between the hired personnel and facial beauty. Thus, facial beauty is of importance in personnel selection in the retail sector.