Appearance-Based Discrimination in GME Resident Selection

Societal awareness of racial, gender, and ethnic bias has increased, but other stigmatized groups remain at risk for exclusion. It is important to consider lesser known forms of bias and their potential for influencing behavior. To this end, in our recent Academic Medicine article, we used the application photograph to study the impact of applicants’ physical appearance on the selection of radiology residents, and found that the applicant’s obesity and facial attractiveness strongly influenced decisions to grant residency interviews. We found this unfortunate pattern of appearance-based discrimination across the spectrum of applicant race, gender, and academic achievement. Though these findings were disturbing, they were not terribly surprising to us. As readers ponder the implications of our findings for their home institution, we feel it’s important to consider two things: this is not about radiology, and it’s not about the photograph. We studied selection decisions in our field of radiology, but there is no reason to assume our results would not translate into any field of medicine, and probably throughout higher education. We feel we were studying human nature, not radiology decisions. Shortly after online publication of our paper, a newspaper headline erroneously blurted: “Unattractive people are less likely to get into medical school.” Probably because the general public can better relate to medical school admissions than to residency selection, th...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Tags: Featured Guest Perspective appearance-based bias graduate medical education resident selection Source Type: blogs