Stoker Janka I, Garretsen Harry, Spreeuwers Luuk J
Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
SCS-Services Cyber Security and Safety Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2016 Jul 27;11(7):e0159950. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159950. eCollection 2016.
Research overwhelmingly shows that facial appearance predicts leader selection. However, the evidence on the relevance of faces for actual leader ability and consequently performance is inconclusive. By using a state-of-the-art, objective measure for face recognition, we test the predictive value of CEOs' faces for firm performance in a large sample of faces. We first compare the faces of Fortune500 CEOs with those of US citizens and professors. We find clear confirmation that CEOs do look different when compared to citizens or professors, replicating the finding that faces matter for selection. More importantly, we also find that faces of CEOs of top performing firms do not differ from other CEOs. Based on our advanced face recognition method, our results suggest that facial appearance matters for leader selection but that it does not do so for leader performance.
大量研究表明，面部容貌会影响领导者的选拔。然而，关于面部容貌与实际领导能力及相应绩效之间相关性的证据尚无定论。通过使用一种先进的、客观的面部识别方法，我们在大量面部样本中测试了首席执行官（CEO）的面部容貌对公司绩效的预测价值。我们首先将《财富》500强CEO的面部与美国公民和教授的面部进行比较。我们明确证实，与公民或教授相比，CEO的长相确实不同，这再次证明了面部容貌对选拔很重要。更重要的是，我们还发现，表现最佳公司的CEO的面部与其他CEO并无差异。基于我们先进的面部识别方法，我们的结果表明，面部容貌对领导者选拔很重要，但对领导者绩效则不然。
