Using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) to Examine Implicit Beauty Bias in the Context of Employability

Attractiveness bias has been well-documented in social domains, however, an investigation into the attractiveness-bias effect on employability has not been conducted using implicit measures. In Study 1 (N= 24) the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) and a number of explicit measures (e.g., self-report questionnaires) were used to investigate the attractiveness-bias effect on employability using stimuli of high and low attractiveness. Results from Study 1 indicated that there was a significant bias in the direction of attractive-employable on explicit and implicit measures. In Study 2, (N= 52) these measures were used to investigate the attractiveness-bias effect on employability using stimuli of high and medium attractiveness. Results from Study 2 indicated that there was a significant bias in the direction of attractive-employable on explicit measures and a significant bias in the direction of attractive-employable and medium-attractive-unemployable on implicit measures. There was no effect of participant gender onD-scores for either study. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research and implications for the use of implicit measurement to measure attractiveness bias in the domain of employability.