Black Fortune 500 CEOs with a "babyface" appearance are more likely to lead companies with higher revenues and prestige than black CEOs who look more mature, an upcoming study says.
In contrast with research showing that white executives are hindered by babyface characteristics, a disarming appearance can help black CEOs by counteracting the stigma that black men are threatening, according to the study from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
The study is scheduled to be published in the journal Psychological Science in September.
A babyface is characterized by combinations of attributes, including a round face, full cheeks, larger forehead, small nose, large ears and full lips, the study says.
Decades of research has shown that people believe babyfaced adults to be more trustworthy, and respond to them with greater patience, sensitivity and compassion, according to Robert Livingston, co-author of the study and an assistant professor of organizations and management at Kellogg.
In the study, a group of 21 college students was shown photographs of 40 current and past CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Eleven of the students were white, 10 were Asian and 10 were female.
4 comments:
Well, you might want to appear, Dr. B! Non-threatening: Couldn't fit the description better.
HAM is at it again I see.
Appearence has nothing to do with strength
Ha Ha! TheMan...I second that...but the findings of the psychological study are most likely true, for those who do pursue career advancement in corporate venues, or anywhere else for that matter--e.g., academia. I have what has been called "strong" beauty & you would not believe the reactions and comments--, staring, and in some parts of America (the Midwest)touching & photographing by strangers--I've gone through on a daily basis to simply--my looks. by American standards of beauty I would be called androgynous, but I am simply African--one who grew up in America, one generation removed, before it was as commonplace as it is today.If I go to my father's home in Africa, many women of his tribe look as I do. But here in America, I grew up falling somewhere between an otherworldly creature come exoctized curio I get stares and comments about being "strong" when people have barely made my acquaintance or even talked with me. I have been compared to and mistaken for Grace Jones (particularly in the Midwest). I get called threatening (without ever having opened my mouth). It makes me understand on each passing day why hair-straightening for Black women is a 65 BILLION dollar business. Imagine how those funds could be diverted for the education of our children and other purposes, if nappy hair weren't considered so repulsive and threatening in just about every strata of American society.
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