The Teddy-Bear Effect

Abstract

Prior research suggests that having a baby face is negatively correlated with success among White males in high positions of leadership. However, we explored the positive role of such "babyfaceness" in the success of high-ranking Black executives. Two studies revealed that Black chief executive officers (CEOs) were significantly more baby-faced than White CEOs. Black CEOs were also judged as being warmer than White CEOs, even though ordinary Blacks were rated categorically as being less warm than ordinary Whites. In addition, baby-faced Black CEOs tended to lead more prestigious corporations and earned higher salaries than mature-faced Black CEOs; these patterns did not emerge for White CEOs. Taken together, these findings suggest that babyfaceness is a disarming mechanism that facilitates the success of Black leaders by attenuating stereotypical perceptions that Blacks are threatening. Theoretical and practical implications for research on race, gender, and leadership are discussed.

The role of expression and race in weapons identification.

“…Importantly, positive cues also have the power to sway implicit stereotyping (Livingston & Pearce, 2009). Priming with a stimulus containing cues both to threat (race) and approachability (a smile) decreased previously obtained patterns of implicit stereotyping.…”

“…One is Gestalt perception, in which race is perceived not in isolation, but in conjunction with additional factors both internal and external to the stimulus individual (Livingston & Pearce, 2009; Wittenbrink et al, 2001). A similar explanation is that different subtypes are activated at the intersection of two social categories such as a racial category and a social role (Barden et al, 2004).…”

“…Livingston and Pearce (2009) suggest that physical, psychological, and behavioral traits conveying lack of threat act as disarming mechanisms, reducing perceptions of threat associated with members of stigmatized groups. Empirically, they focused on facial features indicative of baby-faceness, reasoning that more neotenous features would counteract the perceived threat associated with Black Americans, resulting in better outcomes for baby-faced than mature-faced Black Americans.…”

Democrats and Republicans Can Be Differentiated from Their Faces

“…People are known to form impressions of others from their faces instantaneously and automatically [3]. Moreover, these perceptions can have highly consequential outcomes, such as affecting the jobs that individuals are offered [4] their outcomes in court [5], and their financial success [6]–[8].…”

Black Adolescent Males: Intersections Among Their Gender Role Identity and Racial Identity and Associations With Self‐Concept (Global and School)

“…Given that Black male adolescents are often perceived as threatening and problematic in a school context (Hooks, 2004;Noguera, 2003), those who present both their assertive and independent selves and their communal and relational selves may fare better. In organizational research, Black leaders were rated higher when they displayed "nonthreatening" characteristics (Livingston & Pearce, 2009), such as passivity and nonaggressive behavior rather than more assertive behaviors often associated with masculinity. In essence, Black male adolescents who report an androgynous gender role may experience fewer gender and racial stereotypes that can impact school self-concept and school performance.…”