Men's Facial Width Provides Indicator for Success
While most people are aware of the correlation between good looks and success in life, new research has recently found that a man’s face shape can play a large part in their career success. A new study from researchers at the University of California, Riverside, London Business School and Columbia University found that men with wider faces negotiated signing bonuses that were approximately $2,200 larger than their narrow-faced peers.
The study paired 60 male students and had them negotiate for a hypothetical signing bonus, with one student acting as a mock recruiter and the other as the newly signed employee. The study, published online in The Leadership Quarterly found that wide-faced men negotiated bonuses that were $2,200 larger on average. Additionally, researchers had 46 MBA students negotiate the sale of a hypothetical piece of real estate. During the second experiment, those with wider faces negotiated significantly higher sale prices when on the seller’s side and significantly lower prices when acting as the buyer.
The study isn’t the first time that researchers have studied the correlation between success and the width of a person’s face. In 2011, the UC Riverside researchers looked at the width-to-height ratio of the faces of Fortune 500 CEOs and determined that CEOs with wider faces generally oversaw stronger financial performance at companies.
According to Michael Haselhuhn, an assistant professor of management at UC Riverside and a coauthor of the facial-width studies, larger facial width-to-height ratios are generally associated with increased levels of testosterone in men. He goes on to point out that higher testosterone levels can make men feel more powerful and dominant.
The researchers also found that men with wider faces performed worse than narrow-faced men when collaborating with others or compromise were key to closing a deal.