E-perceptions and Business 'Mating': The Communication Effects of the Relative Width of Males' Faces in Business Portraits.

Eveline Van Zeeland,Jörg Henseler

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.605926

Abstract

This study investigates the relative impacts of the facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR) on the first impressions business professionals form of business consultants when seeing their photographs on a corporate website or LinkedIn page. By applying conjoint analysis on field experiment data (n = 381), we find that in a zero-acquaintance situation business professionals prefer low-fWHR business consultants. This implies that they prefer a face that communicates trustworthiness to one that communicates success. Further, we have investigated the words that business professionals use to describe their preferred consultant. These approach motivations help practitioners to improve the picture-text alignment. The results underline the necessity to critically assess the pictures and text used on websites and media platforms such as LinkedIn for business purposes, and to see them as a key element of business and self-communication that can be altered in order to improve business ‘mating.’

Highlights

An ever-increasing part of our lives takes place online
The professional profiles we present on corporate websites and LinkedIn contain facts about a business professional, they are full of cues that people use to make inferences about the other (Pollach and Kerbler, 2011; van de Ven et al, 2017)
We investigate the preferences for a wide successful face or a small trustworthy face, so as to see whether the face width of a business consultant on a photograph on a corporate website has any effect on the choice of business professionals and whether this effect, if it exists, differs for short-term vs. long-term projects

Summary

Introduction

An ever-increasing part of our lives takes place online. Almost every business professional has a personal digital twin that is used to build online relationships and that operates in the private domain, and in the business domain. The professional profiles we present on corporate websites and LinkedIn contain facts about a business professional, they are full of cues that people use to make inferences about the other (Pollach and Kerbler, 2011; van de Ven et al, 2017). The online social environment is considered to be an excellent environment for impression management, since here the actors can completely shape the ways they self-present, from profile picture to favorite quote (Stopfer et al, 2014). They can “manage their selfpresentations more strategically than in face-to-face situations.” In other words: Do business professionals prefer the successful wide face or the trustworthy small face when seeing other business professionals with whom one can potentially start a business relationship? This is our central research question

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion