Leadership Research Summary:
• Physical attractiveness is most commonly presumed to be an exogenous characteristic that influences people’s feelings, perceptions, and behavior across myriad types of relationships. The study investigated the opposite prediction in which feelings toward other people influence the perceptions of others’ attractiveness. Focusing specifically on subordinates’ perceptions of leaders of in-groups and out-groups, the study examined whether group membership moderates familiarity in relation to ratings of physical attractiveness.
• Studies 1 and 2 show that subordinates rate the leaders of their in-groups as significantly more physically attractive than comparably familiar out-group leaders. The study’s findings have relevance for understanding the interactive roles of physical attractiveness within contemporary organizational environments and help to account for variance in interpersonal perceptions on the basis of group membership. In contrast with research traditions that treat physical attractiveness as a static trait, the findings highlight the importance of group membership as a lens for perceiving familiar leaders’ physical attractiveness.
Leadership Research Findings:
• The study’s findings contribute to research concerning the importance of physical attractiveness by highlighting the variable’s interactive nature and its potential relevance for bonding organizational followers and leaders. Specifically, the study’s reliance on a naturalistic approach provides important context for studies that aim to understand the influence of physical attractiveness – as an independent and dependent variable – in relation to social interactions involving groups. The article also contributes to research concerning the “ultimate” question (cf. Vigil, 2010) of why people endure the costs of leadership since the studies suggest a non-obvious, non-monetary benefit of being a leader (i.e., people tend to view leaders of their organizations as relatively more physically attractive).
• Beyond helping to address the question of why people accept the costs of leadership, our findings also warrant consideration of why followers might have a tendency to view their organization’s leaders as more physically attractive. Particularly given that the two samples that we considered rely upon voluntary associations demonstrated by partisan-based employment (Study 1) and voting (Study 2) choices, it seems reasonable to expect that followers will view their leaders as more physically attractive as part of general in-group biases (e.g., Brewer, 1979).
• In this sense, the findings appear to illustrate a non-obvious mechanism for in-group development and maintenance whereby followers see their leaders in more favorable lights than people who belong to rival organizations. While researchers focused on “follower-centric” theories have discussed the “romance of leadership” (e.g., Haslam et al., 2001, Meindl, 1995, Meindl et al., 1985) as a figurative reference to the generally favorable but not necessarily specific nature of being in charge, the findings show that followers’ affection for organizational leaders appears to include – non-figuratively – enhanced perceptions of their leaders’ physical attractiveness.
• Given that people tend to enjoy the company of physically attractive others (e.g., Madera & Hebl, 2012), an enhanced view of one’s organizational leaders should help to maintain organizational followers’ engagement. Practical implications of our studies include a better understanding of the dynamics behind so-called office romances in which subordinates develop affection for organizational leaders whom they might not otherwise consider to be physically attractive (i.e., if they were strangers). To the extent that it is not uncommon to see news reports of political leaders engaged in romantic relationships with subordinate employees/followers, the findings suggest that followers likely have relatively high perceptions of their leaders’ physical attractiveness when compared with ratings from followers of rival leaders.
• While there are certainly differences between political operations and more traditional business dynamics, it is possible that greater self-awareness would minimize the adverse effects of romantic relationships within work organizations if there were broader awareness of the findings presented in this article.Additionally, it is noteworthy that some of the previous research concerning the physical appearance of political candidates has drawn attention to concerns that voters appear to be irrationally influenced or biased by superficial features (Antonakis and Dalgas, 2009, Benjamin and Shapiro, 2009).
• While those concerns are warranted for stranger-to-stranger relationships such as many hiring or recruitment contexts, the main concern generated by our studies involves the finding that partisans appear to “see” parts of the world that others consider to be objective through significantly different lenses. Partisans routinely disagree about policy matters; however, our findings of different perceptions of physical attractiveness for familiar leaders as a function of group membership break new ground.
• In contrast with studies that presume that physical attractiveness is a static personal characteristic that influences how people perceive each other and as a complement to previous work that considers individual-level relationships as important predictors for interpersonal perceptions, researchers present evidence that group membership moderates followers’ ratings of familiar leaders’ physical attractiveness.
• While the article sheds suggestive light on the ultimate question of why people endure the costs of leadership and reinforces the concern that partisanship colors how people perceive an otherwise objective trait such as a person’s physical appearance, there are also constructive and encouraging implications that future research can consider outside of the political domain. In effect, the study finds evidence that people are capable – for better or for worse – of judging covers by their books whereby the cover of physical appearance is viewed partly and significantly through the lens of organizational membership.