The Facial Displays of Leadership: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Senior, Carl

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-94535-4_1

Cited by 4 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Psychological biases due to evolutionary processes or cultural norms can incline voters to value age and to select older leaders. Yet, meta‐analyses from Stogdill (1948) to Senior (2018) reach systematically the same conclusion: age is relevant to explain leadership preferences, but the direction of the relationship depends on the context. Old age is in some circumstances an advantage, in other a hindrance.…”

Section: Psychological Biases In Favor Of Older Leadersmentioning

confidence: 87%

Gerontocracy in a comparative perspective: Explaining why political leaders are (almost always) older than their constituents

Magni-Berton

Panel

2020

Sociology Compass

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Gerontocracy, in its narrowest sense, refers to political systems ruled by elderly people, whether de jure or de facto. Although formal gerontocratic rules are progressively disappearing, contemporary political systems are still governed by individuals who are significantly older than the mean voter. This article reviews existing explanations for the prevalence of gerontocracy. To summarize main findings, gerontocracy cannot be explained by the leadership qualities of older rulers: aging leaders do not perform better in office and voters seem to be aware of it. Instead, existing research suggests that gerontocracy can be explained by strategic considerations. In autocracies, the selectorate tends to choose aging leaders in order to reduce their expected tenure length. In democracies, voters are more likely to select experienced candidates, which they expect to be more effective at advancing the interests of their constituency: this premium put on experience mechanically lengthens political careers and increases the age of the average politician. Finally, older voters, which participate more in politics, tend to prefer older politicians, because they (correctly) expect them to better defend their own interests.

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Section: Psychological Biases In Favor Of Older Leadersmentioning

confidence: 87%

Gerontocracy in a comparative perspective: Explaining why political leaders are (almost always) older than their constituents

Magni-Berton

Panel

2020

Sociology Compass

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“…The findings here therefore support the first hypothesis showing that more intense affiliative displays were made by the female politician when she was watching her male counterpart respond. Smile displays are largely regarded as being a fundamental mechanism to convey effective leadership and indeed there was no difference in the number of smiles engendered by either candidate (see e.g., Senior, 2018). Thus it may in fact be that different types of smiles play a role in the social relationships that define leadership.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is no doubt that gender-based cues drive voter preferences alongside the aligned political context (Grabo & van Vugt, 2018). A candidate displaying feminised facial features is likely to be favoured by the voting public when confronted with a contextual situation that is firmly co-operative in nature (Senior, 2018). Indeed the 2016 presidential election was polarised insofar as Trump had a clear campaign platform while Clinton's was often judged to be ambiguous (see e.g., Linsky, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smiles of Affiliation and Dominance when competing for Leadership: The effect of gender in the 2016 US Presidential Debates

Senior¹,

Ridout²,

Stewart³

2019

Preprint

Self Cite

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For human observers’ slight differences in the muscular configurations of the smile can communicate dominance or affiliation. Despite the significant role played by smiles, our gender modulates their valance. Females tend to smile more than men and are judged more negatively if they smile less than their male counterparts. Given that the smile is associated with effective leadership it remains to be seen whether or not gender moderates such displays during leadership campaigns. To examine this question the non-verbal displays occurring in the 2016 US presidential debate were analysed in a unique video case-study approach. Specifically, it was hypothesised that the female politician (Hillary Clinton) would engender more smiles in general and displays of affiliation specifically. Given the rehearsed, yet unpredictable, nature of such debates it was further hypothesized that the displays would be more intense when each candidate watched the other respond not when they responded directly. Differences in smiles of affiliation and dominance were analysed and results did indeed support the hypothesis that the more intense displays were engendered by candidates when watching their counterpart respond to the moderator. The female politician made more intense smile displays in general and more affiliative smile gestures specifically than the male politician (Donald Trump). These results are discussed in terms of the sociobiological significance that such honest social signals may have in a contemporary political campaign. As is common practice limitations and proposals for future work are discussed.

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“…Static cues such as height, size, and facial characteristics play a role in evaluation of politicians by providing visual confirmation of a political figure's physical capacity. Politicians who are discernibly taller and heavier, and thus larger, are perceived as more capable of responding to an external threat and preserving the status quo or, alternately, forcibly changing the status quo (see e.g., Senior, 2018). This thus predisposes individuals to favour them as leaders when compared to their smaller counterparts (Boix & Rosenbluth, 2006;Murray, 2014;Sell et al, 2009).…”

Section: Bodymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Emerging technologies such as DeepFake that allow for individuals to "wear" the face and use the voice of public figures have the potential to erode trust and destabilize political and social institutions (Farid, 2018). Although currently the detection of such deception may be carried out through frame-by-frame analysis of such critical nonverbal behaviour as eye blinks (Li, Chang, Farid, & Lyu, 2018), ultimately there 2 a trick or device to incite applause 3 There is a body of literature suggesting that we may process implied motion from a static facial display (e.g., David & Senior, 2000;Senior et al, 2018). Futurework could therefore examine this 'implied facial motion effect' and how it impacts the communication of a particular political message.…”

Section: Potential For Deceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Politics, lies and video tapes: Non verbal cues and signals in the age of 'fake news'

Stewart¹

2018

Preprint

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With our current preoccupation with ‘fake news’ it is perhaps time to consider how such (mis) information spreads and whether “fake news” is false, misleading, or merely uncomfortable. Ironically, these political narratives are often disseminated by the political figures themselves – who then complain about the veracity of media coverage when it does not match their message. This situation is captured by the, perhaps unduly, pessimistic old joke “How can you tell a politician is lying? His lips are moving” which underscores a fundamental concern for scholars who study the political world: how does one judge when a political figure is being truthful ?

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The Facial Displays of Leadership: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Cited by 4 publications

References 66 publications

Gerontocracy in a comparative perspective: Explaining why political leaders are (almost always) older than their constituents

Gerontocracy in a comparative perspective: Explaining why political leaders are (almost always) older than their constituents

Smiles of Affiliation and Dominance when competing for Leadership: The effect of gender in the 2016 US Presidential Debates

Politics, lies and video tapes: Non verbal cues and signals in the age of 'fake news'

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