A face for all seasons: Searching for context-specific leadership traits and discovering a general preference for perceived health
Previous research indicates that followers tend to contingently match particular leader qualities to evolutionarily consistent situations requiring collective action (i.e., context-specific cognitive leadership prototypes) and information processing undergoes categorization which ranks certain quali...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2014-11-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00792/full |
| _version_ | 1818411923459276800 |
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| author | Brian R. Spisak Nancy M. Blaker Carmen E. Lefevre Fhionna R. Moore Kleis F. B. Krebbers |
| author_facet | Brian R. Spisak Nancy M. Blaker Carmen E. Lefevre Fhionna R. Moore Kleis F. B. Krebbers |
| author_sort | Brian R. Spisak |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Previous research indicates that followers tend to contingently match particular leader qualities to evolutionarily consistent situations requiring collective action (i.e., context-specific cognitive leadership prototypes) and information processing undergoes categorization which ranks certain qualities as first-order context-general and others as second-order context-specific. To further investigate this contingent categorization phenomenon we examined the attractiveness halo – a first-order facial cue which significantly biases leadership preferences. While controlling for facial attractiveness, we independently manipulated the underlying facial cues of health and intelligence and then primed participants with four distinct organizational dynamics requiring leadership (i.e., competition versus cooperation between groups and exploratory change versus stable exploitation). It was expected that the differing requirements of the four dynamics would contingently select for relatively healthier- or intelligent-looking leaders. We found perceived facial intelligence to be a second-order context-specific trait – for instance, in times requiring a leader to address between-group cooperation – whereas perceived health is significantly preferred across all contexts (i.e., a first-order trait). The results also indicate that facial health positively affects perceived masculinity while facial intelligence negatively affects perceived masculinity, which may partially explain leader choice in some of the environmental contexts. The limitations and a number of implications regarding leadership biases are discussed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T10:39:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4529b21098fd4b99afa1bec8297bd04d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T10:39:08Z |
| publishDate | 2014-11-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-4529b21098fd4b99afa1bec8297bd04d2022-12-21T23:05:46ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612014-11-01810.3389/fnhum.2014.0079288486A face for all seasons: Searching for context-specific leadership traits and discovering a general preference for perceived healthBrian R. Spisak0Nancy M. Blaker1Carmen E. Lefevre2Fhionna R. Moore3Kleis F. B. Krebbers4VU University AmsterdamVU University AmsterdamLeeds University Business SchoolUniversity of DundeeVU University AmsterdamPrevious research indicates that followers tend to contingently match particular leader qualities to evolutionarily consistent situations requiring collective action (i.e., context-specific cognitive leadership prototypes) and information processing undergoes categorization which ranks certain qualities as first-order context-general and others as second-order context-specific. To further investigate this contingent categorization phenomenon we examined the attractiveness halo – a first-order facial cue which significantly biases leadership preferences. While controlling for facial attractiveness, we independently manipulated the underlying facial cues of health and intelligence and then primed participants with four distinct organizational dynamics requiring leadership (i.e., competition versus cooperation between groups and exploratory change versus stable exploitation). It was expected that the differing requirements of the four dynamics would contingently select for relatively healthier- or intelligent-looking leaders. We found perceived facial intelligence to be a second-order context-specific trait – for instance, in times requiring a leader to address between-group cooperation – whereas perceived health is significantly preferred across all contexts (i.e., a first-order trait). The results also indicate that facial health positively affects perceived masculinity while facial intelligence negatively affects perceived masculinity, which may partially explain leader choice in some of the environmental contexts. The limitations and a number of implications regarding leadership biases are discussed.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00792/fullHealthIntelligenceCategorizationface perceptioncontingencyLeadership |
| spellingShingle | Brian R. Spisak Nancy M. Blaker Carmen E. Lefevre Fhionna R. Moore Kleis F. B. Krebbers A face for all seasons: Searching for context-specific leadership traits and discovering a general preference for perceived health Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Health Intelligence Categorization face perception contingency Leadership |
| title | A face for all seasons: Searching for context-specific leadership traits and discovering a general preference for perceived health |
| title_full | A face for all seasons: Searching for context-specific leadership traits and discovering a general preference for perceived health |
| title_fullStr | A face for all seasons: Searching for context-specific leadership traits and discovering a general preference for perceived health |
| title_full_unstemmed | A face for all seasons: Searching for context-specific leadership traits and discovering a general preference for perceived health |
| title_short | A face for all seasons: Searching for context-specific leadership traits and discovering a general preference for perceived health |
| title_sort | face for all seasons searching for context specific leadership traits and discovering a general preference for perceived health |
| topic | Health Intelligence Categorization face perception contingency Leadership |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00792/full |
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