Dietl, Rule & Blickle 2018pp LQ Core self-evaluations mediate the association between leaders’ facial appearance and their professi...pdf (856.9 kB)
Core self-evaluations mediate the association between leaders' facial appearance and their professional success: Adults' and children's perceptions
journal contribution
posted on 2018-11-02, 10:57 authored by Erik DietlErik Dietl, Nicholas Rule, Gerhard BlickleAlthough the link between facial appearance and success is well established, the mechanisms responsible for this association have remained elusive. Evolutionary theory suggests that perceived leadership characteristics should be important for men’s self-concept. Drawing on implicit leadership theory and evolutionary perspectives, we therefore examined the
associations between first impressions based on facial appearance, core self-evaluations
(CSEs), leadership role occupancy, and career success among a sample of working men. In Study 1, we found that CSEs mediated the relationship between individuals’ facial appearance and measures of their success as leaders. In Study 2, we replicated these results using children’s ratings of facial appearance, thus suggesting that basic properties of the targets’ faces communicated their leadership ability more than the perceivers’ life experience or
acquired knowledge. These results suggest that people may use facial appearance as a
diagnostic tool to determine the leadership ability of others.
History
School
- Business and Economics
Department
- Business
Published in
The Leadership QuarterlyVolume
29Issue
4Pages
476 - 488Citation
DIETL, E., RULE, N. and BLICKLE, G., 2018. Core self-evaluations mediate the association between leaders' facial appearance and their professional success: Adults' and children's perceptions. The Leadership Quarterly, 29(4), pp. 476-488.Publisher
© ElsevierVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This paper was accepted for publication in the journal The Leadership Quarterly and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.01.002Acceptance date
2018-01-16Publication date
2018-02-02ISSN
1048-9843Publisher version
Language
- en