Browsing by Author "Rule, Nicholas O."
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Item Dictators differ from democratically elected leaders in facial warmth(2021) Giacomin, Miranda; Mulligan, Alexander; Rule, Nicholas O.Despite the many important considerations relevant to selecting a leader, facial appearance carries surprising sway. Following numerous studies documenting the role of facial appearance in government elections, we investigated differences in perceptions of dictators versus democratically elected leaders. Participants in Study 1 successfully classified pictures of 160 world leaders as democrats or dictators significantly better than chance. Probing what distinguished them, separate participants rated the affect, attractiveness, competence, dominance, facial maturity, likability, and trustworthiness of the leaders’ faces in Study 2. Relating these perceptions to the categorizations made by participants in Study 1 showed that democratically elected leaders looked significantly more attractive and warmer (an average of likability and trustworthiness) than dictators did. Leaders’ facial appearance could therefore contribute to their success within their respective political systems.Item Eyebrows cue grandiose narcissism(2018) Giacomin, Miranda; Rule, Nicholas O.Objective: Though initially charming and inviting, narcissists often engage in negative interpersonal behaviors. Identifying and avoiding narcissists therefore carries adaptive value. Whereas past research has found that people can judge others’ grandiose narcissism from their appearance (including their faces), the cues supporting these judgments require further elucidation. Here, we investigated which facial features underlie perceptions of grandiose narcissism and how they convey that information. Method and Results: In Study 1, we explored the face’s features using a variety of manipulations, ultimately finding that accurate judgments of grandiose narcissism particularly depend on a person’s eyebrows. In Studies 2A–2C, we identified eyebrow distinctiveness (e.g., thickness, density) as the primary characteristic supporting these judgments. Finally, we confirmed the eyebrows’ importance in Studies 3A and 3B by measuring how much perceptions of narcissism changed when swapping narcissists’ and non-narcissists’ eyebrows between faces. Conclusions: Together, these data show that distinctive eyebrows reveal narcissists’ personality to others, providing a basic understanding of the mechanism through which people can identify narcissistic personality traits with potential application to daily life.Item Grandiose narcissists seek status selectively(2018) Giacomin, Miranda; Battaglini, Ashley M.; Rule, Nicholas O.Grandiose narcissists (individuals with a tendency to be self-focused, egotistical, and vain) overwhelmingly desire celebrity status. Here, we examined the conditions underlying narcissists’ fame motivation. In Study 1, we assessed participants’ desire to become a social media user who attained high status, tried to attain status but failed, or had no status-attainment goal. In Study 2, we assessed how participants’ self-perceived similarity to high-status targets (e.g., Hollywood/social media celebrities) influences their desire to become them. We found that participants reporting high narcissism were most motivated to become successful social media celebrities, disliking people who tried to attain status but failed more than they disliked people who had no goal for fame (Study 1). Moreover, narcissists emulated high-status targets only when they felt similar (vs. dissimilar) to them (Study 2). Thus, narcissists do not perceive all fame as equally desirable and only express a desire for fame when it is attainable.Item How static facial cues relate to real-world leaders’ success: a review and meta-analysis(2020) Giacomin, Miranda; Rule, Nicholas O.People use facial information to infer others’ leadership potential across numerous domains; but what forms the basis of these judgements and how much do they matter? Here, we quantitatively reviewed the literature on perceptions of leaders from facial cues to better understand the association between physical appearance and leader outcomes. We used standard random-effects meta-analytic techniques to determine how appearance cues relate to leader perceptions and associated constructs. Appearance cues suggesting the presence of qualities often desired in leaders correlated with leader selection and success (MZ-r =.26, 95% CI [.21,.31]). Larger effect sizes emerged for popularity outcomes (i.e., those based on perceptions) than for performance outcomes (i.e., those based on external measures). These data help to explain how people envision leaders and their characteristics, providing potential insights to why they select and follow particular individuals over others.