Multiple studies have confirmed that attractive job candidates are more likely to land the job than their less attractive fellow applicants. But new research shows that this might not be true for all job openings. Jobs that are considered less desirable are actually more difficult for attractive people to land, says a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

The key difference between studies from the past and this new study is the type of jobs the candidates applied for. This new study takes into account not only the attractiveness of the applicant but also the desirability of the job as well as the biases some people in the hiring process might have. Four researchers from the London Business School, Singapore Management University and INSEAD worked on the research together.

More than 750 participants who make hiring decisions in the job market were asked a series of questions. And the researchers actually did four different studies within the one to fully examine the impact of attractiveness as well as job desirability on hiring.

For the first and second studies the participants were shown computer generated headshots of two potential candidates, one of which had previously been deemed “attractive” and one who hadn’t, through prior research studies. The third and fourth studies introduced other factors to the study like photos of real people and HR managers.

In three of the four studies the researchers actually asked the participants whether or not they would hire one of the two candidates they were presented with for less or more desirable jobs. With less desirable jobs classified as those that required participants complete potentially boring tasks, manual labor, or work in a warehouse among other factors. The results showed that the participants responded that they were less likely to hire the more attractive candidate for the less desirable position and conversely more likely to hire the unattractive candidate for the less desirable job.

This was due to perceived entitlement the researchers found through their studies. The more attractive people were perceived as being more entitled to good outcomes and the participants thought that the more attractive candidates would be less satisfied with the less desirable position than an unattractive person would be, the lead author on the study, Margaret Lee, explained in a release.

So rather than give the more attractive candidates the position, the recruiters instead decided to assume their satisfaction levels in the position along with their aspirations and not give them the less desirable position.

This could indicate that previous research that shows attractive people are more favored in the job selection process or it could indicate that previous studies examined the hiring processes for high-level, or desirable, positions.

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