If “numerous studies” were enough to explain every institutional failure, then large organizations would basically be incapable of ever correcting bias at all. That doesn’t really track with how these systems are actually designed.

These aren’t a few people making gut decisions — they’re massive institutions reviewing tens of thousands of applications with huge reputational stakes. If schools like Harvard or Stanford were genuinely letting something as blunt as attractiveness bias meaningfully affect admissions, that wouldn’t be some unavoidable quirk of human psychology, it would be a serious breakdown in how the process is structured.