If you want to become a leader in business, you have to be healthy, or at least look it. That's the result of a recent Dutch study on leaders in business and politics. Looking healthy may be even more important than looking intelligent, according to the researchers.
The study was published November 5, in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
Participants, both male and female, were shown a series of photos of men, each presented in a pair. The 148 participants were each asked which of the two men they would choose as a CEO. The participants were told each time what the man's main responsibility would be as CEO for that company.
However, both photos were of the same man, but were altered digitally so that in one picture, the man appeared less healthy, and in the other, he appeared less intelligent. For example, the less healthy face was altered to be more pale, and the healthier face had a rosy complexion. The faces with low intelligence had a dull look, while the faces with high intelligence were smiling slightly.
The participants chose the healthier-looking face 69 percent of the time, researchers found. The participants only chose the more intelligent face over the more healthy face when the researchers said the CEO would have to find new markets or negotiate between groups.
The other types of responsibilities CEOs could have in this study were focusing on competing aggressively, or overseeing the company's stable exploitation of non-renewable energy.
"Here we show that it always pays for aspiring leaders to look healthy, which explains why politicians and executives often put great effort, time, and money in their appearance. If you want to be chosen for a leadership position, looking intelligent is an optional extra under context-specific situations whereas the appearance of health appears to be important in a more context-general way across a variety of situations," said Brian Spisak, lead author of the paper.
The researchers theorized that having low facial health negatively impacted how masculine viewers judged the face, and that having high facial intelligence also lowered perceived masculinity.
