6 February 2008
CEOs profit from a handsome face
Study finds looking good turns in a high performance – but don’t appear too likeable.
The more powerful a CEO looks, the more profitable their company say researchers from Tufts University in the US.
Studies of CEO performance are usually based on the opinions of those close to a CEO – or the CEO’s own views. Instead, for this latest study, Nicholas Rule and Dr. Nalini Ambady asked 100 of Tufts University students to rate 50 corporate leaders on facial appearances.
CEOs rated highly on perceived leadership and authority were running the more profitable companies.
Picking the best
These students unwittingly predicted the best performers – CEOs rated highly on perceived leadership and authority were running the more profitable companies.
"These first-impression judgments are actually in a sense more accurate," says Rule. "They're not biased by having too much information."
“Even though the CEOs were all white, middle-aged men, the students must have picked up on something,” says Ambady.
That X-factor probably wasn't learned at charm school. Scoring highly on "warmth" didn't always tally with great profits. "Warmth isn't correlated with success. Power is,” Rule says.
Looking good – earning more
If you look powerful, do you generally do better? Or, do great profits rub off on a CEO to create a powerful persona?
The students rated CEO headshots from the highest and lowest ranked Fortune 1,000 companies on "power" (competence, dominance and facial maturity) and "warmth" (likeability and trustworthiness).
Without knowing names or companies, students selected the most – and least – successful CEOs in terms of the company’s financial performance.
Without knowing names or companies, students selected the most – and least – successful CEOs in terms of the company’s financial performance.
Scoring highly on dominance and maturity, for example, correlated to company profits, while likeability and trustworthiness did not.
The full report will be published in the Journal of Psychological Science this month.
Have your say
Do this study's findings tally with your experiences of successful CEOs? Will HR departments find themselves facing discriminatory charges if hiring those candidates perceived as "better looking" due to their increased chances of success?
Discuss these issues with other comms practitioners by joining the Internal Comms Hub members' group on the Communicators' Network.
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