Context-specificity in facial cues of leadership

Fasolt, Vanessa (2017) Context-specificity in facial cues of leadership. MSc(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Facial cues can have context-contingent effects on leadership judgments, with
dominant-looking individuals judged as better leaders in wartime than peacetime
contexts and trustworthy-looking individuals judged as better leaders in peacetime
than wartime contexts. To further explore this issue participants rated faces for
dominance, trustworthiness, attractiveness, effectiveness as leader of a country
during wartime or peacetime, and effectiveness as leader of a company
manufacturing cars or clothing. Principal component analysis of potential leaders’
characteristics that predicted leadership judgments in prior research produced three
components, reflecting general positive regard, dominance, and height, respectively.
Perceived dominance and actual height positively predicted leadership judgments in
a wartime context but not in a peacetime context. Positive regard positively
predicted leadership judgments in a peacetime context, but not in a wartime context.
Similar patterns of results were observed for leadership judgments in car
manufacturing and clothing-manufacturing contexts. Together, these results present
further evidence for context-contingent effects of facial cues on hypothetical
leadership judgments.

• Item Type: Thesis (MSc(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Keywords: Leadership, face perception.
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
• Colleges/Schools: College of Science and Engineering > School of Psychology
• Supervisor's Name: Jones, Prof. Benedict
• Date of Award: 2017
• Depositing User: Ms Vanessa Fasolt
• Unique ID: glathesis:2017-8108
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 12 Apr 2017 14:44
• Last Modified: 09 May 2017 09:54
• URI: http://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/8108