Lookism: The Awkward Topic That Nobody Wants to Talk About in Leadership
- Christina - Spark Back Coaching
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
I was scrolling past yet another "here is how to prepare for #job #interviews article" hoping it would say something new. Of course it did the usual: polish your story, practice your examples, and yes, manage your appearance. And that got me thinking, in 2026, with all the talk about #skills-based hiring and remote #work, how much does "looking the part" still run the show?
So I fell into the rabbit hole of lookism.
What the Duck Is Lookism?
Lookism is bias or discrimination based on physical appearance, including attractiveness, weight, height, grooming, age-coded appearance, and other visible traits.
Isn't This Only Related to Hiring?
Hiring is the obvious entry point, but lookism shows up in who gets listened to, who gets forgiven, who gets promoted, and who is seen as "leadership material".
Here's some real data that will make your head spin:
Earnings and advancement: A cross-disciplinary review reports that highly attractive people earn roughly 20% more and are recommended for promotion more often.
Complaints are real, and not limited to one sector: In Victoria, Australia, where "physical features" are explicitly covered, there were 1,876 enquiries and 639 employment-related complaints about physical features discrimination across 1995 to 2005.
It is not only customer-facing roles: A meta-analysis review notes findings of beauty effects even in work that is not face to face, and cites a typical range of 5% to 20% earnings differences reported across studies, with big variation by context and methods.
But, I Work Remotely. Surely Lookism Can't Be Such a Big Concern for Me?
#Remote work changes the channel, it does not remove the bias.
Video calls can increase appearance-based self-focus. One study found virtual meeting fatigue was 14.9% higher for women than men, and this difference was mediated by facial appearance dissatisfaction.
So yes, the bias can move from "how you look walking into the room" to "how you look in a tiny rectangle with bad lighting at 08:30".
Ok, This Sounds Serious. What Can I Do as a Leader?
The obvious first step in hiring: explicitly remove any evidence of personal appearance from applications.
Use criteria, examples, and calibration in your leadership decisions around promotions, performance reviews, etc.
If you can't justify it, run a "why them, why now" check. If there is no strong evidence, examples, or data to back your decision, then you may be a victim of your own unconscious bias.
Call it out in others to break the cycle. If someone comments on looks as a proxy for competence, interrupt it calmly, redirect to role evidence, and set the standard.
Sparking Leadership # 35: a weekly series on human-centered, sustainable #leadership. Hit the like button to share the love and follow for real talk and practical tools. In the meantime, lead with spark!
