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. 2025 May;54(5):1875-1893.
doi: 10.1007/s10508-025-03134-1. Epub 2025 Jun 5.

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

Katarzyna Wojtaszczyk  1 , Marzena Syper-Jędrzejak  2
Affiliations

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

Katarzyna Wojtaszczyk et al. Arch Sex Behav. 2025 May.

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.

Keywords: Attractiveness; Employment; Erotic capital; Human resource management; Private life.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: Not applicable. Ethical Approval: According to the regulations of the University of Lodz, the consent of the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Lodz ( https://www.uni.lodz.pl/en/research-ethics-committee ) is required only for research in which biological material is collected or the human psyche is interfered with. The applicable regulations indicate that the researcher decides whether to submit an application to the Research Ethics Committee. Both authors did not acknowledge the necessity of submitting an application to the Committee. The survey asked about imaginaries about participating in a job interview, so the study did not interfere with people’s psyche. Both coauthors are qualified to conduct such social research. The high ethical standard of the research carried out was ensured, among other things, by the fact that the procedure involved adults who were informed about the purpose of the research and the possibility of withdrawal without giving a reason and expressed their informed consent to participate. No personal data were collected. Informed Consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants. The participants were encouraged to contact the authors for any questions.

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