However, the male interviewers were not entirely without bias. The electrodermal response (EDR), a psycho-physiological response measured when emotions are used to make a preferential decision, of the interviewers was measured. When emotions are used to make a preferential decision, it is thought that the anticipatory EDR level increases. There was a highly significant increase in the anticipatory EDR when the male interviewers assigned the low status job packages to the attractive female candidates. The fact that this difference only occurred when assigning low status job packages ensures that the effect could not have been driven by interpersonal attraction, but rather by emotion. Female interviewers did not exhibit any significant EDR differences, suggesting their bias occurs on a cognitive level.

This study is the first application of EDR to examine the influential role of beauty, status and sex during job negotiations. “From a business point-of-view, there is a need for leaders/managers to be aware of their assumptions in decision-making processes, be they strategic or operational, and that they may be prone to emotion and bias,” say the authors.

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This study, entitled “Interviewing strategies in the face of beauty: A psychophysiological investigation into the job negotiation process,” is published in volume 1118 of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences: The Social Cognitive Neuroscience of Corporate Thinking. Members of the media wishing to receive a PDF of this article may contact journalnews@bos.blackwellpublishing.net.

To view the abstract for this article, please click here.

Carl Senior is Co-Director of the Organizational Cognitive Neuroscience Centre and University Lecturer in the School of Life & Health Sciences at Aston University. He can be reached for questions at c.senior@aston.ac.uk

Michael J.R. Butler is Co-Director of the Organizational Cognitive Neuroscience Centre and a Lecturer in Management in the Work and Organisational Psychology Group at Aston Business School. He can be reached for questions at m.j.r.butler@aston.ac.uk

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