June Puthasombat's Profile

In the study, participants examined news accounts of fictitious corporate misdeeds. The research found that in a minor public relations crisis, participants held a more favorable attitude toward a baby-faced CEO (large eyes, small nose, high forehead, and small chin) than a mature-faced CEO. The study subjects perceived baby-faced CEOs as more honest.

However, when the situation was more serious, and especially when it involved questions of competency, a baby-faced representative didn't help the company. "In contexts where innocence conveys naïveté, a mature face is evaluated more favorably," write the authors. For example, if a company failed to detect important defects in products, the baby-faced CEO was perceived to be detrimental.

The research also found that the "baby-face effect" is unconscious, and that when participants were distracted (by memorizing a number) the babyface had greater influence. The unconscious nature of baby-face effects has not previously been shown in other research. The authors also demonstrate that the association between baby-faced people and honesty can be overcome by showing participants pictures of supposed criminals with babyfaces.

Several years ago, Zebrowitz studied the faces of individuals involved in cases in small-claims court in Boston. Baby-faced people prevailed more often than those with more mature faces, leading Zebrowitz to theorize that the hallowed right to stand before the bar of justice, face one's accusers, and look a jury in the eye might actually be an impediment to justice. Personal appearance, it seems, can get in the way of the facts.

And ``faceism,'' as Zebrowitz terms it, doesn't occur only in a courtroom; it is pervasive. Our problem is that we act as if this is not the case. We talk about judging people on merit, on the content of their character, when far too often we unthinkingly default to our face prejudices, favoring the handsome and shunning the homely. To deny that we do it, Zebrowitz says, is to allow superficial biases to rule our experience.

People with baby faces — big eyes, high foreheads, small chins and small noses — tend to be perceived as trustworthy. People with more mature-looking faces — smaller eyes and longer faces — tend to be seen as vigilant.

The researchers first set out to see what the limits of the baby-face effect are — how badly a can company err and still be “saved” by a baby face? Subjects were shown fictitious news articles describing mild or severe side effects caused by a drug. The articles were accompanied by different pictures of CEOs, some baby-faced and some with more mature-looking faces. When side effects were described as less severe, subjects reported believing the baby-faced CEOs more often than the mature-faced CEOs. But there are limits to the baby-face effect: when side effects were described as being more severe, subjects were less likely to trust either the baby-faced or the mature-faced CEOs’ claims of ignorance.

“Where small or ambivalent matters are at stake, or where it’s plausible that a company unknowingly committed the offense, a baby face would help,” Johar says. “But if a company releases a drug that produces harmful side effects in 20 percent of users, even if the CEO is very baby-faced, consumers are less likely to forgive the company for that transgression.”