This grim study says more cleavage equals more job success

In science news that's highly likely to make your skin crawl today, a French study has revealed that women who wear low-cut clothing are more likely to secure a job.

Working over a period of three years, Dr Sevag Kertechian of the Paris-Sorbonne University sent two women with almost identical CVs and experience to apply for 200 roles. To ensure the study was fair, each woman applied for 100 roles wearing a conservative outfit and 100 roles wearing a more revealing outfit.                               Out of 200 sales role applications, the applicants wearing the low-cut dress received 62 more interview offers. That mean women who show more cleavage are nineteen times more likely to get an interview than those who prefer to cover up. Depressing, eh?

“Our results showed interesting trends as low-cut dresses significantly influenced the choice of the recruiters, even for accounting positions," Dr Kertechian told The Telegraph. "Regardless of the job, whether customer-facing saleswoman or office-based accountant the candidate with the low cut clothing received more positive answers. “The results were quite shocking and negative but not necessarily surprising – they show we need to conduct more research.”

Interestingly, previous research by Oregon State University shows that the average interviewer has decided whether an applicant is right for the job within the first 10 seconds of meeting them. Dr Sevag Kertechian will unveil his findings in full at the Appearance Matters Conference - the world’s largest conference on body image and disfigurement - in London this week.