A better deal on a car. A better deal at the gym. Even, a higher hourly wage. Our Christiana Brady changed one major thing about her personal appearance and found doors opening, and closing because of it.
The big change? Hair color. With the help of a hidden camera, ABC 4 News reporter Christiana Brady went into various businesses to see if wearing a brunette wig versus going in as her blonde self would provoke different treatment.
ABC4 tried to control any and all variables by visiting mostly the same people (to the extent we could), on the same day, with the same amount of persistence. The results we found may surprise you.
First stop? A staffing agency located in the Salt Lake Valley. ABC4 researched several industries, and picked two that we found paid similarly. We then crafted up two resumes to reflect equal merit. But once we got to talking with the headhunters, we found there weren't any jobs available in either industry. Instead, they steered both the blonde and the brunette to the same position. Christiana Brady asked while undercover as a brunette, “What is the salary?” To which the anonymous headhunter replied, “Usually they're around 10, right around there and up.”
Now, look at the difference when the blonde asks. Remember, it's the exact same job. A different headhunter within the same firm replies, “Will usually be 12 dollars and up.” So, the blonde gets a 2 dollar raise, at 12 dollars an hour.
Next up? Negotiating a monthly payment at a gym. When the undercover brunette asks the gym salesperson what’s the lowest they can go? They answer, “This is our basic…so this is pretty much our bottom line membership here.” The bottom line membership? $25.95 a month, and she wasn’t budging.
Now, "take-two"…but, as a blonde. The gym salesperson now replies, “This is going to be your bread and butter though. It's $25.95. Is that negotiable? It's a little bit…I could probably get you $21.00…It's Friday so we have the ability to pretty much do whatever we want.” So, monthly membership for the brunette? $25.95 a month, and the blonde received 5 dollars off of that price, at $21.00 each month.
Stop number three: negotiating the price of a car. The listed price of this Acura TSX at the dealership we visited? $29,900. Take-one? In goes the brunette. When we asked if the listed price was negotiable, they responded, “You know what they're firm, whenever they price something out cause they don't do financing...so it's basically like a cash price to them. So, non-negotiable.”
Now, the blonde's turn. Christiana Brady asks, “Before taxes and everything, what's it going for?” A different salesman at the same dealership responds, “$25,000.” When asked how much he’d take off, he responded, “$200.” So, that means, with a starting price of $25,000 minus an additional $200 off of that, the blonde receives a difference of more than $5,000!
But what does this all mean? We asked University of Utah Sociology Professor Theressa Martinez who says she wasn't in the least bit surprised at our results.
She reverted first to the "Madonna Theory", an article by popular author Bell Hooks. Martinez says, “Madonna, when she became the material girl, she had this Aryan look.”
Martinez explains what's considered "privileged," however, may be different according to culture, geography, or time period. She adds, “In Salt Lake City, I think the vast majority of people are Caucasian, they're white. I also think there's a lot of blonde people here…and I think you can kind of see that as the 'privileged group.’” But she says, if we were to do the same study in let's say the Midwest, the results would be completely different. Martinez says, “This is interesting. A friend of mine who was brought up in Chicago, all the homecoming queens were Italian...brunettes.”
The Sociologist we talked to says not only does hair color make a difference...she says attractive people, in general, are treated much better. But what does attractive really mean? Isn't beauty in the eye of the beholder?
Biological studies show that universally, people define “attractive” as those with face symmetry.
Studies even show height can play into all this. Taller men are said to receive better paying jobs, and are seen as leaders. In fact, the taller candidate for president has won 84 percent of the time.
So, the Sociologist we talked to says, yes, the way we look does matter, and like we saw in our own little study, often times, it plays an unfair advantage.
