Companies are always looking for better ways to pick the best employees. Intelligence tests and interviews help, but personality also plays a big role in success. A new study by researchers from Wharton, Yale, and Indiana University suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) can predict personality traits from facial images. These AI-generated traits can predict salary, promotions, and career choices. However, this raises important ethical concerns.
A Face That Fits?
The study looked at 96,000 MBA graduates from LinkedIn. An AI tool analyzed their profile pictures and estimated their Big Five personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The results showed that these traits were linked to job outcomes, often as strongly as school rankings and test scores.
Most surprisingly, the AI-based traits were only weakly linked to traditional cognitive skills, like GPA. Yet, they strongly predicted salary differences. The income gap between people with the most and least ‘desirable’ traits was greater than the Black-White pay gap for men and almost two-thirds of it for women. This suggests that the AI is measuring something important about job success.
Why Would a Face Show Personality?
The authors suggest three possible reasons. First, genetics influences both personality and facial structure. Second, hormones during early development shape both behavior and facial features. Third, social experiences may shape personality based on how others treat people with certain facial features.
AI can detect patterns that humans miss, but this doesn’t remove bias. If companies used these tools in hiring, people with ‘less desirable’ faces could be unfairly disadvantaged.
The Risks of AI Hiring
Companies spend time and money on personality tests and interviews. AI personality screening could make hiring faster and cheaper. But there are serious risks.
The biggest danger is discrimination. If AI links facial features to job performance, companies may hire people who simply look successful rather than those who truly have the right skills. AI might not be programmed to discriminate by race or gender, but hidden biases in training data could create unfair outcomes.
Also, the study found that AI traits explain only a small part of career success. Factors like luck, networking, and real-world experience matter more. A hiring system based on AI-generated personality scores could ignore these factors, leading to poor decisions.
The Need for Regulation
The researchers do not recommend using AI personality screening in hiring, but they warn that companies might adopt it anyway. Governments are only beginning to regulate AI in recruitment. Some laws prevent discrimination by automated tools, but AI’s complexity makes enforcement difficult.
Ultimately, society must decide how much power to give AI in hiring. If businesses use AI to judge personality, regulators may need to step in. Otherwise, we could end up in a world where our careers are shaped by how our faces look to a computer.
