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Introduction
Lookism is a growing issue in the modern workplace. Lookism, known as discrimination against physical appearance or attractiveness bias, refers to “preferential treatment of those considered to be attractive and discrimination against those deemed less physically desirable” (Sims, 2015, p. 106). A beautiful physical appearance grants privilege in workplaces, where those who have preferred physical features have more opportunities to be retained and promoted (Sims, 2014). An attractive person tends to be treated very well and receives extra attention, while a person who is described as plain-looking may be treated very differently in the workplace (James, 2008). For example, discrimination against physical appearance has been shown to affect employers' judgment about the quality of employees (Simorangkir, 2013). Job applicants may also be negatively impacted by lookism, which could result in unethical recruitment and hiring practices (Chiu and Babcock, 2002). In addition, physical attractiveness can influence an employee's salary given that attractive employees typically earn more than their less attractive peers (Bruton, 2015).
In many Asian countries, including China, there is neither a clear statutory definition of what constitutes illegal lookism nor meaningful legislation on how to address it (Niu et al., 2021b). Therefore, lookism is widely accepted in the Chinese workplace. It is normal to see appearance requirements in Chinese job advertisements such as “age,” “good image” and “height” (Niu et al., 2021a, p. 5). Employers require that job applicants attach a photograph to their resumes because they consider physical attractiveness a valid selection criterion (Niu et al., 2021b). Appearance-based discrimination is also “sex [gender] discrimination” (Friedricks, 2015, p. 503) because women suffer from lookism more than men (Chiu and Babcock, 2002; Adomaitis et al., 2017). Physical appearance discrimination based on gender is common in the workplace in China (Lu, 2009). For example, men are more likely to be hired than women, and pretty women have more advantages than plain-looking women in the hiring process in China (Wen, 2009).
Lookism impacts not only employees but also the entire workplace. Qualified employees may be screened out in the application process based on lookism in the workplace; as a result, the quality of the workforce pool will decrease (Kanter, 2011). Even worse, people may work to improve their physical appearance rather than...