Looking Like a Leader–Facial Shape Predicts Perceived Height and Leadership Ability

Ré, Daniel; Hunter, David W.; Coetzee, Vinet; Tiddeman, Bernard; Xiao, Dongping; DeBruine, Lisa M.; Jones, Benedict C.; Perrett, David I.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080957

Cited by 54 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 73 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Other recent work has reported that perceived 'tallness' in the face and facial adiposity (i.e. fatness) are associated with judgements of leadership ability (Re, Dzhelyova, Holzleitner, Tigue, Feinberg & Perrett, 2012;Re, Hunter, Coetzee, Tiddeman, Xiao, DeBruine, Jones & Perrett, 2013;Re & Perrett, 2014). Collectively, these findings suggest that physical appearance plays a role in the workplace and particularly in our views of others' leadership abilities.…”

Section: Appearance and Social Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 59%

Perceptions of facial dominance, trustworthiness and attractiveness predict managerial pay awards in experimental tasks

Fruhen

Watkins

Jones

2015

The Leadership Quarterly

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Positive associations between physical attractiveness and employee reward are well-documented within the organizational literature. Although the impact of facial cues to trustworthiness and dominance on a number of social outcomes has been established outside of the workplace, the extent to which they affect pay at different managerial levels in addition to attractiveness is yet to be investigated. This paper presents research into this issue using a face payment task for shop floor managers (Retail Managers) and senior managers (Heads of Retail Operations). Evaluations indicated that all three facial cues were positively associated with awarded pay at both managerial levels. Moreover, attractiveness had a significantly stronger link with shop-floor managers' than senior managers' pay, whereas perceived trustworthiness and perceived dominance had significantly stronger links with pay for senior managers than shop-floor managers. It further emerged that women were paid more in this experimental task where pay was awarded solely based on facial features and that the facial features were more predictive of women's than men's pay. Awareness of the role of physical cues in pay awards can be considered by organizations to reduce biases in remuneration. FACIAL CUES AND PAY2

show abstract

Section: Appearance and Social Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 59%

Perceptions of facial dominance, trustworthiness and attractiveness predict managerial pay awards in experimental tasks

Fruhen

Watkins

Jones

2015

The Leadership Quarterly

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Regarding the above30 ° condition, which is equivalent to a taller person looking down on a smaller person, recent research revealed that taller persons are associated with greater leadership skills (Re et al, 2012, 2013). From this point of view, you may expect that smaller persons indeed rely on the helpfulness of the respective leader instead of being more helpful themselves.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taking the Perfect Selfie: Investigating the Impact of Perspective on the Perception of Higher Cognitive Variables

Schneider

Carbon

2017

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Taking selfies is now becoming a standard human habit. However, as a social phenomenon, research is still in the fledgling stage and the scientific framework is sparse. Selfies allow us to share social information with others in a compact format. Furthermore, we are able to control important photographic and compositional aspects, such as perspective, which have a strong impact on the assessment of a face (e.g., demonstrated by the height-weight illusion, effects of gaze direction, faceism-index). In Study 1, we focused on the impact of perspective (left/right hemiface, above/below vs. frontal presentation) on higher cognitive variables and let 172 participants rate the perceived attractiveness, helpfulness, sympathy, dominance, distinctiveness, and intelligence, plus important information on health issues (e.g., body weight), on the basis of 14 3D faces. We could show that lateral snapshots yielded higher ratings for attractiveness compared to the classical frontal view. However, this effect was more pronounced for left hemifaces and especially female faces. Compared to the frontal condition, 30° right hemifaces were rated as more helpful, but only for female faces while faces viewed from above were perceived as significant less helpful. Direct comparison between left vs. right hemifaces revealed no effect. Relating to sympathy, we only found a significant effect for 30° right male hemifaces, but only in comparison to the frontal condition. Furthermore, female 30° right hemifaces were perceived as more intelligent. Relating to body weight, we replicated the so-called “height-weight illusion.” Other variables remained unaffected. In Study 2, we investigated the impact of a typical selfie-style condition by presenting the respective faces from a lateral (left/right) and tilted (lower/higher) vantage point. Most importantly, depending on what persons wish to express with a selfie, a systematic change of perspective can strongly optimize their message; e.g., increasing their attractiveness by shooting from above left, and in contrast, decreasing their expressed helpfulness by shooting from below. We could further extent past findings relating to the height-weight illusion and showed that an additional rotation of the camera positively affected the perception of body weight (lower body weight). We discuss potential explanations for perspective-related effects, especially gender-related ones.

show abstract

“…We created five composite images (each one created by averaging a random selection of three original male faces together) and masked them to occlude clothes with a black oval around the head. We then created "prototypes" to use for 8 transforming the composites in perceived height, masculinity, and age (see Re et al, 2013b for details).…”

Section: Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Facial cues to height, which correlate with actual height (Burton & Rule, 2013;Re et al, 2013b), have also been found to influence perceptions of dominance (Windhager, Schaefer, & Fink, 2011). One study found that facial cues associated with tall physical stature increase perceived dominance (Re et al, 2013a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Perceived Height, Masculinity, and Age on Each Other and on Perceptions of Dominance in Male Faces

2015

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Several studies have examined the individual effects of facial cues to height, masculinity, and age on interpersonal interactions and partner preferences. We know much less about the influence of these traits on each other. We therefore examined how facial cues to height, masculinity, and age influence perceptions of each other and found significant overlap. This suggests that studies investigating the effects of one of these traits in isolation may need to account for the influence of the other two traits. Additionally, there is inconsistent evidence on how each of these three facial traits affects dominance. We therefore investigated how varying such traits influences perceptions of dominance in male faces. We found that increases in perceived height, masculinity, and age (up to 35 years) all increased facial dominance. Our results may reflect perceptual generalizations from sex differences as men are on average taller, more dominant, and age faster than women. Furthermore, we found that the influences of height and age on perceptions of dominance are mediated by masculinity. These results give us a better understanding of the facial characteristics that convey the appearance of dominance, a trait that is linked to a wealth of real-world outcomes.

show abstract

Looking Like a Leader–Facial Shape Predicts Perceived Height and Leadership Ability

Cited by 54 publications

References 73 publications

Perceptions of facial dominance, trustworthiness and attractiveness predict managerial pay awards in experimental tasks

Perceptions of facial dominance, trustworthiness and attractiveness predict managerial pay awards in experimental tasks

Taking the Perfect Selfie: Investigating the Impact of Perspective on the Perception of Higher Cognitive Variables

Influence of Perceived Height, Masculinity, and Age on Each Other and on Perceptions of Dominance in Male Faces

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About