Erotic Capital: The Role of Attractiveness in Employment and Private Life.

Abstract

Attractiveness is one of the basic sources of information about another person. For this reason, attractiveness is important in private and professional life. In employment, attractiveness is one of the criteria to assess job candidates or employees. This issue was drawn from the concept of erotic capital, according to which the erotic capital of a candidate or an employee is a five-dimensional construct consisting of beauty, social attractiveness, sexual attractiveness, liveliness, and presentation. Our research focused on the role of erotic capital in professional life, and considerations about private life were treated as a background for employment-related results. Erotic capital had been defined as a five-dimensional construct composed of 23 facets. A construct met the reliability and validity requirements, which had been confirmed by a previous confirmatory factor analysis. Our study aimed to determine the significance of the particular facets of erotic capital, the dimensions of erotic capital, and erotic capital as a construct in the assessment of the other person in employment and in private life. A total of 471 respondents participated in our study, comprising 344 women and 127 men. We used an online survey (computer-assisted web interview technique). We established that the most significant dimensions of erotic capital, pertinent to both professional and private life, were social attractiveness and liveliness. However, we did not determine the impact of erotic capital, understood as a five-dimensional construct, on human resource management decisions. Our findings suggested that the role of erotic capital in management needs to be further explored.