Facial traits of CEOs correlate with higher pay, study says [View All]

Source: Scripps News

Titled "A Corporate Beauty Contest," the study asked nearly 2,000 people, mostly college and graduate school students, to rate the facial traits of corporate CEOs alongside non-CEOs and the heads of smaller companies. The results suggest that looks do indeed matter in corporate boardrooms.

"Our results suggest that CEOs who look competent have higher pay, but their companies do not necessarily do better," said Manju Puri, who wrote the study along with fellow Fuqua School of Business finance professors Campbell Harvey and John Graham. "So that should be a matter of concern."

The study was conducted online and included only photos of white males who were taken from a 2004 database of CEOs. The participants did not know who the men in the photos were. All the photos were of men in business dress in conventional poses in front of bland backgrounds.

In one part of the study, participants were presented with 87 pairs of photos -- one CEO and one non-CEO -- and asked to note which person was more competent, trustworthy, likable and attractive.


Read more: http://www.scrippsnews.com/content/facial-traits-ceos-correlate-higher-pay-study-says

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The MSN article that lead to the Scripps story
Search: 'A Corporate Beauty Contest'
http://specials.msn.com/A-List/popular-searches.aspx?cp-documentid=24233609&imageindex=1