Look me in the eye if you're a man: The impact of gender cues on impression formation in online professional profiles

Online profiles are becoming increasingly important in work contexts from recruiting to termination decisions. We conducted an experiment to investigate the effect of profile layout and more specifically gender cues on professional impression formation (n=202). The presence or absence of a photo had no impact on overall ratings or profile likability. Layout, however, interacted with gender of the profile owner in that male profiles were rated most positively with photo, female profiles without photo. Silhouette images providing only generic gender cues led to similarly low ratings for male and female profiles. Our study has implications for users managing their attractiveness on the job market as well as for HR professionals and organizations. It further extends our understanding of the gendered nature of professional online settings. Copyright