The researchers write that they expected the heavier faces to score better for non-customer service jobs. However, that was only the case for the heavier male faces. The heavier female faces were rated poorly for both types of jobs.

This was despite the fact that, even with the pounds added, the women in the photographs did not even have body mass indexes above the healthy range. The four men did, however. That suggests that the socially acceptable weight threshold is higher for men than women.

"It appears that even subtle weight gain can have a huge impact on employability, especially for women. Women on the heavier side of healthy appear to suffer more in the labor market than overtly overweight men. By the same token, even subtle weight loss can apparently improve your chances of success in a job interview — particularly if you are a woman," the researchers write.

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The study affirms widely-held suspicions about weight-based discrimination, as well as past research on the issue. A similar study four years ago examined the effect that bariatric surgery could have on job prospects and found that people were much more likely to favorably review a resume accompanied by a photo of a woman post-bariatric surgery than the same resume with a photo of her before surgery.

The solution, suggest the Quartz researchers, is to encourage recruiters to "audit" their unconscious biases when deciding on job candidates. Otherwise, they conclude wryly, "we'll have to wait until societal standards of attractiveness become more realistic — and that could be a long wait."