Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

The Facial Displays of Leaders pp 1–25Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Facial Displays of Leadership: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

Despite the emerging literature converging on a greater understanding of general non-verbal displays of leadership, there remains scant work exploring the role of the face in this area. A systematic review of the literature was carried out that highlighted specific facial displays that communicated leadership traits throughout our immediate social group. The role of the smile and the frown, the pupil-to-brow distance, facial width-to-height ratio as well as structural cues conveying maturity and gender all play a role in the transmission of leadership. This review also sets the foundation for the introduction of the remaining contributions to the book, which, taken together, provides a platform that addresses the surprising paucity of work in this area and in doing so enables the reader to better understand the crucial role that facial displays have in the conveyance of this fundamental social process.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    See also Keating (1985) for a simply fascinating read.

  2. 2.

    In light of its importance to the success of the social group, it goes without saying that leadership-type behaviours occur within other non-human groups, see, for example, Allee, Allee, Ritchey, and Castles (1947) for an interesting analysis.

  3. 3.

    ILT describes a cognitive heuristic that an observer would have about an individual’s ability to be an effective leader (Epitropaki & Martin, 2004). The efficacy of ILT can be measured with behavioural traits such as intelligence and dedication and how they vary within a range of different task contexts (Keller, 2000). Leadership attribution is therefore a dynamic process and not one that merely involves matching expected leadership behaviours to a set of required activities.

  4. 4.

    See McDermott, Lopez, and Hatemi (2016) for a further discussion of the possibilities of applying a sociobiological approach to the study of political leadership.

  5. 5.

    See chapter by Stewart and colleagues for a more detailed analysis of the effects of camera time in political debates.

  6. 6.

    See also Keating, Randall, and Kendrick (1999) for a further exploration into the role that cues of facial maturity can play in judgements of presidential personalities.

  7. 7.

    It is interesting to note that study of effective organizational behaviour in the form of successful negotiations has started to examine the role that facial displays of power may have, for example, Semnani-Azad and Adair (2011).

  8. 8.

    Facial displays of dominance have also been shown to make an impact in a non-military context as well (Mazur, Halpern, & Udry, 1994; Savin-Williams, 1977).

  9. 9.

    Our earlier work shows that displaying a reduced pupil-to-brow distance and other dominance displays during a job negotiation scenario results with interviewees being given more high-status job benefits (Senior, Thomson, Badger, & Butler, 2007; Senior, Lau, & Butler, 2007).

  10. 10.

    See the chapter by Petersen and colleagues for an excellent discussion on the possible adaptive function of fWHR displays.

  11. 11.

    On a personal note, it was reading Keating, Mazur, and Segall (1977) that inspired me to enrol in a PhD programme in the first place so I am very proud to be able to work with her now.

References

  • Allee, W. C., Allee, M. N., Ritchey, F., & Castles, E. W. (1947). Leadership in a flock of white pekin ducks. Ecology, 28(3), 310–315.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Alrajih, S., & Ward, J. (2014). Increased facial width-to-height ratio and perceived dominance in the faces of the UK’s leading business leaders. British Journal of Psychology, 105(2), 153–161.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Andrew, R. J. (1965). The origins of facial expressions. Scientific American, 213(4), 88–95.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Antonakis, J., & Dalgas, O. (2009). Predicting elections: Child’s play! Science, 323(5918), 1183–1183.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Antonakis, J., & Eubanks, D. L. (2017). Looking leadership in the face. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(3), 270–275.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Antonakis, J., & Jacquart, P. (2013). The far side of leadership: Rather difficult to face. In M. C. Bligh & R. Riggio (Eds.), Exploring distance in leader–follower relationships: When near is far and far is near (pp. 155–187). Blackwell Publishing, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blaker, N. M., Rompa, I., Dessing, I. H., Vriend, A. F., Herschberg, C., & van Vugt, M. (2013). The height-leadership advantage in men and women: Testing evolutionary psychology predictions about the perceptions of tall leaders. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 16(1), 17–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, E., & Perrett, D. I. (1993). What gives a face its gender? Perception, 22(7), 829–840.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Bucy, E. P. (2016). The look of losing, then and now: Nixon, Obama, and nonverbal indicators of opportunity lost. American Behavioral Scientist, 60(14), 1772–1798.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Bucy, E. P., & Bradley, S. D. (2004). Presidential expressions and viewer emotion: Counterempathic responses to televised leader displays. Social Science Information, 43(1), 59–94.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, R., Benson, P. J., Wallace, S. B., Doesbergh, S., & Coleman, M. (1999). More about brows: How poses that change brow position affect perceptions of gender. Perception, 28(4), 489–504.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Carré, J. M., & McCormick, C. M. (2008). In your face: Facial metrics predict aggressive behaviour in the laboratory and in varsity and professional hockey players. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 275(1651), 2651–2656.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, J. M., & Russell, J. A. (1997). Facial expressions in Hollywood’s portrayal of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(1), 164–176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, F. F., Jing, Y., & Lee, J. M. (2014). The looks of a leader: Competent and trustworthy, but not dominant. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 51(7), 27–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conradt, L., & Roper, T. J. (2007). Democracy in animals: The evolution of shared group decisions. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 274(1623), 2317–2326.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Dabbs, J. M. (1997). Testosterone, smiling, and facial appearance. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 21(1), 45–55.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P. (1992). An argument for basic emotions. Cognition & Emotion, 6(3–4), 169–200.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1971). Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 17(2), 124–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., Sorenson, E. R., & Friesen, W. V. (1969). Pan-cultural elements in facial displays of emotion. Science, 164(3875), 86–88.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Epitropaki, O., & Martin, R. (2004). Implicit leadership theories in applied settings: Factor structure, generalizability, and stability over time. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(2), 293–310.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gomulya, D., Wong, E. M., Ormiston, M. E., & Boeker, W. (2017). The role of facial appearance on CEO selection after firm misconduct. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(4), 617–635.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, J. (2006). Old masters. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2006/jun/06/art

  • Keating, C. F. (1985). Human dominance signals: The primate in us. In S. L. Ellyson & J. F. Dovidio (Eds.), Power, dominance, and nonverbal behavior (pp. 89–108). New York, NY: Springer.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Keating, C. F., & Bai, D. L. (1986). Children’s attributions of social dominance from facial cues. Child Development, 57(5), 1269–1276.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Keating, C. F., Mazur, A., & Segall, M. H. (1977). Facial gestures which influence the perception of status. Sociometry, 40(4), 374–378.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Keating, C. F., Randall, D., & Kendrick, T. (1999). Presidential physiognomies: Altered images, altered perceptions. Political Psychology, 20(3), 593–610.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Keller, T. (2000). Images of the familiar: Individual differences and implicit leadership theories. The Leadership Quarterly, 10(4), 589–607.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Keltner, D. (1995). Signs of appeasement: Evidence for the distinct displays of embarrassment, amusement, and shame. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(3), 441–454.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • King, A. J., Johnson, D. D., & van Vugt, M. (2009). The origins and evolution of leadership. Current Biology, 19(19), R911–R916.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, G. J., Lefevre, C. E., & Bates, T. C. (2012). Facial width-to-height ratio predicts achievement drive in US presidents. Personality and Individual Differences, 52(7), 855–857.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Lightman, A. P. (1996). Dance for two: Selected essays. New York, NY: Pantheon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Livingston, R. W., & Pearce, N. A. (2009). The teddy-bear effect: Does having a baby face benefit black chief executive officers? Psychological Science, 20(10), 1229–1236.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Loehr, J., & O’Hara, R. B. (2013). Facial morphology predicts male fitness and rank but not survival in Second World War Finnish soldiers. Biology Letters, 9(4), 20130049. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2013.0049

  • Mazur, A., Halpern, C., & Udry, J. R. (1994). Dominant looking male teenagers copulate earlier. Ethology and Sociobiology, 15(2), 87–94.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Mazur, A., & Mueller, U. (1996). Facial dominance. In A. Somit & S. Peterson (Eds.), Research in biopolitics (Vol. 4, pp. 99–111). London: JAI Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McDermott, R., Lopez, A. C., & Hatemi, P. K. (2016). An evolutionary approach to political leadership. Security Studies, 25(4), 677–698.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Mignault, A., & Chaudhuri, A. (2003). The many faces of a neutral face: Head tilt and perception of dominance and emotion. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 27(2), 111–132.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Mueller, U., & Mazur, A. (1996). Facial dominance of West Point cadets as a predictor of later military rank. Social Forces, 74(3), 823–850.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Poutvaara, P., Jordahl, H., & Berggren, N. (2009). Faces of politicians: Babyfacedness predicts inferred competence but not electoral success. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(5), 1132–1135.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Re, D. E., Hunter, D. W., Coetzee, V., Tiddeman, B. P., Xiao, D., DeBruine, L. M., … Perrett, D. I. (2013). Looking like a leader facial shape predicts perceived height and leadership ability. PloS ONE, 8(12), e80957. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080957

  • Re, D. E., & Rule, N. O. (2016). Predicting firm success from the facial appearance of Chief Executive Officers of non-profit organizations. Perception, 45(10), 1137–1150.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Rule, N. O., & Ambady, N. (2008). The face of success: Inferences from chief executive officers’ appearance predict company profits. Psychological Science, 19(2), 109–111.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Rule, N. O., & Ambady, N. (2009). She’s got the look: Inferences from female chief executive officers’ faces predict their success. Sex Roles, 61(9–10), 644–652.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rule, N. O., Ishii, K., & Ambady, N. (2011). Cross-cultural impressions of leaders’ faces: Consensus and predictive validity. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 35(6), 833–841.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rychlowska, M., Jack, R. E., Garrod, O. G., Schyns, P. G., Martin, J. D., & Niedenthal, P. M. (2017). Functional smiles: Tools for love, sympathy, and war. Psychological Science, 28(9), 1259–1270.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Savin-Williams, R. C. (1977). Dominance in a human adolescent group. Animal Behaviour, 25(Part 2), 400–406.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, K. L., Bhattacharya, S., & Denlinger, R. (2009). Comparison of deliberate and spontaneous facial movement in smiles and eyebrow raises. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 33(1), 35–45.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, K. L., & Cohn, J. F. (2001). Human facial expressions as adaptations: Evolutionary questions in facial expression research. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 116(S33), 3–24.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Senior, C., Barnes, J., Jenkins, R., Landau, S., Phillips, M. L., & David, A. S. (1999). Attribution of social dominance and maleness to schematic faces. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 27(4), 331–337.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Senior, C., Lau, A., & Butler, M. J. (2007). The effects of the menstrual cycle on social decision making. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 63(2), 186–191.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Senior, C., Phillips, M. L., Barnes, J., & David, A. S. (1999). The perception of dominance from schematic faces: A study using the WWW. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 31(2), 341–346.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Senior, C., Thomson, K., Badger, J., & Butler, M. J. (2007). Interviewing strategies in the face of beauty. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1118(1), 142–162.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Semnani-Azad, Z., & Adair, W. L. (2011). The display of “dominant” nonverbal cues in negotiation: The role of culture and gender. International Negotiation, 16(3), 451–479.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Shariff, A. F., & Tracy, J. L. (2009). Knowing who’s boss: Implicit perceptions of status from the nonverbal expression of pride. Emotion, 9(5), 631–639.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spisak, B. R. (2012). The general age of leadership: Older-looking presidential candidates win elections during war. PLoS ONE, 7(5), e36945. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0036945

  • Spisak, B. R., Dekker, P. H., Krüger, M., & van Vugt, M. (2012). Warriors and peacekeepers: Testing a biosocial implicit leadership hypothesis of intergroup relations using masculine and feminine faces. PloS ONE, 7(1), e30399. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0030399

  • Spisak, B. R., Grabo, A. E., Arvey, R. D., & van Vugt, M. (2014). The age of exploration and exploitation: Younger-looking leaders endorsed for change and older-looking leaders endorsed for stability. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(5), 805–816.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Spisak, B. R., Homan, A. C., Grabo, A., & van Vugt, M. (2012). Facing the situation: Testing a biosocial contingency model of leadership in intergroup relations using masculine and feminine faces. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(2), 273–280.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, P. A., Waller, B. M., & Schubert, J. N. (2009). Presidential speechmaking style: Emotional response to micro-expressions of facial affect. Motivation and Emotion, 33(2), 125–135.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stirrat, M., & Perrett, D. I. (2012). Face structure predicts cooperation: Men with wider faces are more generous to their in-group when out-group competition is salient. Psychological Science, 23(7), 718–722.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Stoker, J. I., Garretsen, H., & Spreeuwers, L. J. (2016). The facial appearance of CEOs: Faces signal selection but not performance. PLoS ONE, 11(7), e0159950. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159950

  • Thompson, A. H. (1891, January). The origin and evolution of the human face. In Transactions of the annual meetings of the Kansas Academy of Science (Vol. 13, pp. 6–16). Kansas Academy of Science.

    Google Scholar 

  • Todorov, A., Mandisodza, A. N., Goren, A., & Hall, C. C. (2005). Inferences of competence from faces predict election outcomes. Science, 308(5728), 1623–1626.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Tracy, J. L., & Matsumoto, D. (2008). The spontaneous expression of pride and shame: Evidence for biologically innate nonverbal displays. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(33), 11655–11660.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Trichas, S., & Schyns, B. (2012). The face of leadership: Perceiving leaders from facial expression. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(3), 545–566.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Trichas, S., Schyns, B., Lord, R., & Hall, R. (2017). “Facing” leaders: Facial expression and leadership perception. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(2), 317–333.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • van Vugt, M., & Grabo, A. E. (2015). The many faces of leadership: An evolutionary-psychology approach. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(6), 6484–6489.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waller, B. M., & Dunbar, R. I. (2005). Differential behavioural effects of silent bared teeth display and relaxed open mouth display in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Ethology, 111(2), 129–142.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Willis, J., & Todorov, A. (2006). First impressions: Making up your mind after a 100-ms exposure to a face. Psychological Science, 17(7), 592–598.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Zebrowitz, L. A., & Montepare, J. M. (2005). Appearance DOES matter. Science, 308(5728), 1565–1566.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aston University, Birmingham, UK

    Carl Senior

  2. The University of Gibraltar, Europa Point, Gibraltar

    Carl Senior

Authors
  1. Carl Senior
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carl Senior .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Aston University, Birmingham, UK

    Carl Senior

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Senior, C. (2018). The Facial Displays of Leadership: A Systematic Review of the Literature. In: Senior, C. (eds) The Facial Displays of Leaders. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94535-4_1

Download citation

search

Navigation