A comparison of hiring practices in the United States and China reveals an ugly truth. iStockPhoto // byryo

status consistency wanted

Status matters, but not in the way we might think. While it may not, for example, be surprising to learn that being attractive helps secure a job, a recent article in the American Journal of Sociology finds that “the extent to which an actor occupies similar ranks across different status dimensions,” or has status consistency, is what truly matters.

Through a multi-context study in China and the United States, Christopher Marquis, András Tilcsik, and Ying Zhang examined status consistency in the job market. While no gender differences were found, more attractive applicants with elite educational credentials were favored for higher-status jobs, while less attractive applicants from non-elite universities were preferred for lower-status positions. Applicants with either attractive looks or elite educational credentials, but not both, were not favored for either type of job. The underlying mechanism the authors identify is that candidates with status inconsistencies are not perceived as the most qualified for higher-status jobs. Meanwhile, they are seen as less committed to the organization, which creates more uncertainty in the evaluation process for both types of positions compared to status-consistent applicants.

The proliferation of social networking sites—and their many photos of job-seekers—has only made it easier for potential employers to discern applicants’ physical attractiveness and, consequently, status consistency, raising important questions about the dynamics of status and inequality in contemporary labor markets. The authors thus hope that their perspective will shed new light on “the sociological aspects of physical attractiveness and help advance the broader social scientific project of uncovering the dynamics of status and inequality in contemporary labor markets and other social arenas.”