A new study found that most people prefer leaders who look healthy compared to those who look intelligent.
Researchers from VU University Amsterdam involved 148 participants in a study that aims to know the preferences of people on potential leaders. The team focused on health, intelligence and attractiveness. The participants who were both men and women were asked to think that they were screening an applicant for a CEO position for different roles such as steering an aggressive competition, close a partnership with another company, direct the company's shift into a new market, or supervise the use of non-renewable energy.
The participants were shown two photos of the same man but slightly transformed. The face was altered to look more or less intelligent and more or less healthy.
The experiment showed that the majority of the participants or 69 percent prefers the healthier looking man than the intelligent-looking one. The results remained almost the same despite different roles of the CEO. But, the intelligent-looking faces were chosen if the role is to close a partnership with another company and venture to a new market where there are more face-to-face negotiations.
"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 selected 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 and Assistant Professor at the Department of Management and Organization of VU University Amsterdam, in a news release.
Further details of the study were published in the Nov. 5 issue of the Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
