Facial Cues to Perceived Height Influence Leadership Choices in Simulated War and Peace Contexts

Ré, Daniel; DeBruine, Lisa; Jones, Benedict C.; Perrett, David

doi:10.1177/147470491301100109

Cited by 65 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 60 publications

(112 reference statements)

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“…Participants also preferred high facial masculinity more for competitive contexts than for collaborative contexts, as indicated by a significant main effect of leadership context, F(1, 183) 5 3.83, p 5 .05. Participants' preferences were not dependent on the specific configuration of leader gender 2 The images were taken from a previous study with permission of the corresponding author (Re et al, 2013). The images were created with the software Psychomorph following established procedures (Perrett et al, 1998).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Values are also shown in Table 2. a Image produced by Re et al, 2013, and is reproduced with permission of the corresponding author. 4 As robustness checks, we conducted four regression analyses with participants' gender as a control variable.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet, previous research studies have found that people prefer men and women leaders with masculine faces, particularly in competitive settings (Little, Burriss, Jones, & Roberts, 2007;Little, 2014;Re, DeBruine, Jones, & Perrett, 2013;Spisak, Dekker, Krüger, & van Vugt, 2012;Spisak, Homan, Grabo, & Van Vugt, 2012). Are Mayer, Whitman, and Sandberg then just exceptions to the rule, or is there something more systematic to the success of nonmasculinelooking women in the corporate world?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Similarly, masculine faces activate a schema that evokes dominance and strength (Little, 2014), traits that are characteristic of prototypical leaders (Lord & Dinh, 2014). Masculine faces are likely associated with dominance and power, because in many animal species, including primates (De Waal, 1982) and humans (Murray & Schmitz, 2011), facial masculinity is linked to greater physical size and strength, body features which in many species determine social status and rank (Henrich & Gil-White, 2001;Little et al, 2007;Re et al, 2013). This pattern was also evident in a study of elementary school children who ascribed strength, resourcefulness, independence and, indeed, leadership to those girls whom they categorized as rather masculine (Hemmer & Kleiber, 1981).…”

Section: Facial Masculinity and Leadership Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Women and men whose faces appear masculine are more likely to attain leadership positions, as high facial masculinity signals relevant personality traits such as dominance and agency (Re et al, 2013;Spisak, Dekker, et al, 2012). These traits, according to leadership theory (Hogue & Lord, 2007) and gender research (Eagly & Karau, 2002), are seen as desirable for leaders.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reading the Face of a Leader: Women with Low Facial Masculinity Are Perceived as Competitive

Silberzahn

Menges

2016

AMD

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In competitive settings, people prefer leaders with masculine faces. But is facial masculinity a trait that is similarly desired in men and women leaders? Across three studies, we discovered that people indeed prefer men and women leaders who have faces with masculine traits. But surprisingly, we find that people also prefer women with low facial masculinity as leaders in competitive contexts (Study 1). Our findings indicate that low facial masculinity in women, but not in men is perceived to indicate competitiveness (Study 2). Thus, in contrast to men, women leaders who rate high in facial masculinity as well as those low in facial masculinity are both selected as leaders in competitive contexts. Indeed, among CEOs of S&P 500 companies, we find a greater range of facial masculinity among women CEOs than among men CEOs (Study 3). Our results suggest that traits of facial masculinity in men and women are interpreted differently. Low facial masculinity in women is linked to competitiveness and not only to cooperativeness as suggested by prior research. Editor's CommentThe paper by Silberzahn and Menges provides important insights into the effects of masculine and feminine facial features. Do leaders in competitive situations profit from masculine or feminine features, and does this vary across men and women? Based on their intuition and a few available data points, the authors expected mainstream ideas to hold for men but not for women, where those ideas support masculinity for leaders embedded in strongly competitive situations. The authors were right-among men, those with masculine features were favored as leaders and indeed were seen as more competitive, but among women those with strongly masculine features and those with strongly feminine features were favored and were rated as more competitive. Having shared these findings with several executive audiences, this editor can tell you that practicing managers are quite intrigued by the implications. For scholarship, the findings reported in the paper have implications for several research streams and theories.C. Chet Miller, Action Editor 272

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%