Sexual insecurity causes attractive businesswomen to be judged as less truthful

New research indicates that attractive businesswomen are viewed as less truthful than their less attractive counterparts. This relationship appears to be related to sexual insecurity, which has lead the researchers to dub it the “femme fatale effect.”

The study, which was published in the journal Sex Roles, found that attractiveness predicted lower perceptions of truthfulness for women, but not men, who were delivering negative organizational news.

“I’ve always been drawn to research topics that turn a commonly-accepted notion on its head,” said study author Leah Sheppard, an assistant professor of management in the Carson College of Business at Washington State University.

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About the Author: DrStefanieKJohnson

Dr. Stefanie K. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Management at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. She holds a Ph.D. from Rice University and is particularly interested in the effects of unconscious biases in the evaluation of women and minorities, with the goal of finding ways to mitigate those biases. Dr. Johnson brings bias to light with an engaging and humorous approach to advanced scientific research, which has earned her numerous accolades and invitations to present her work at meetings around the world, including the White House for a 2016 summit on diversity in corporate America on National Equal Pay Day, and the 2016 Harvard Negotiation and Leadership Conference. She has published over 70 journal articles and book chapters in outlets such as Harvard Business Review, Journal of Applied Psychology and The Academy of Management Journal. She has extensive consulting experience and has created and delivered leadership-development training with an emphasis on evidence-based practice. In recognition of her unique research, Dr. Johnson has been awarded nearly three million dollars in external funding to study leadership and create leadership development programs aimed at increasing safety. Media outlets featuring her work include: The Economist, Newsweek, Time, and CNN. Stefanie lives in the Boulder Bubble in Colorado with her Biology Professor husband, two young kiddos, and two old kitties.