ScienceDaily (Jan. 14, 2008) — It certainly takes more than a pretty face to run a leading national corporation. But according to a recent Tufts University study, the performance levels of America’s top companies could be related to the first impressions made by their chief executive officers (CEOs).

Using photographs of the highest and lowest ranked Fortune 1000 companies’ CEOs, psychologists Nicholas Rule and Nalini Ambady quizzed ordinary college students to determine which of the pictured faces were characteristic of a leader.

Without knowledge of the pictured individuals’ job titles, and by rating the faces on competence, dominance, likeability, facial maturity and trustworthiness, the students were able to distinguish between the successful and the not-so-successful CEOs.

Despite the ambiguity of the images, which were cropped to the face, put into grayscale and standardized in size, ratings of power- and leadership-related traits from CEOs’ faces were significantly related to company profits.

"These findings suggest that naive judgments may provide more accurate assessments of individuals than well-informed judgments can," wrote the authors. “Our results are particularly striking given the uniformity of the CEOs’ appearances.” The majority of CEOs, who were selected according to their Fortune 1000 ranking, were Caucasian males of similar age.

The study, which appears in the February 2008 issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveals a strong connection between appearances and success as it leaves behind an intriguing question: which came first, the powerful-looking CEO or their successful career?

Story Source:

Adapted from materials provided by Association for Psychological Science.

Related Stories

Saving Face With A Baby-Face? Shape Of CEO's Face Affects Public Perception (May 30, 2008) — When a corporation has a public relations crisis, the news media splash photos of the company's CEO around the world. According to new research the shape of the CEO's face evokes judgments about the ...  > read more

Apple, National Semiconductor Among California Companies With No Women At The Top (Oct. 17, 2007) — Nearly one third of the largest public companies headquartered in California have no women at the top, a new study shows. Almost half of the companies have no women directors and more than a third ...  > read more

Confidence Is Key to Gauging Impressions We Make (Mar. 15, 2010) — The gift of "seeing ourselves as others see us" comes in handy when judging how we've made a first impression. Yet many come away with little or no clue about how that first impression was perceived. ...  > read more

Face Recognition: The Eyes Have It (Mar. 27, 2009) — Our brain extracts important information for face recognition principally from the eyes, and secondly from the mouth and nose, according to a new study. This result was obtained by analyzing several ...  > read more

Search ScienceDaily

Breakthrough Brain Surgery