{"id":39894,"date":"2023-10-20T15:05:04","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/lets-face-it-first-impressions-count-online-are-you-a-competent-looking-ceo-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:05:04","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:05:04","slug":"lets-face-it-first-impressions-count-online-are-you-a-competent-looking-ceo-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/lets-face-it-first-impressions-count-online-are-you-a-competent-looking-ceo-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s face it, first impressions count online: Are you a “competent-looking” CEO? – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We live in an age where most of us have an online presence. Many of us have numerous accounts on social and professional networking sites<\/a> such as Facebook and LinkedIn. And singles among us are increasingly turning online to find love.<\/p>\n

So how do the images we post of ourselves online influence the first impressions others form of us?<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s often said we shouldn\u2019t judge a book by its cover, the reality is that we all do<\/a>. It takes only the briefest glance<\/a> of a face, for us to form first impressions on a range of social attributes such as attractiveness, trustworthiness, likeability and competence.<\/p>\n

And it isn\u2019t all in the eye of the beholder. There is a high degree of consensus in the first impressions we form of others from their facial appearance. This means many people will often form the same impression of another person based on their appearance.<\/p>\n

First impressions count<\/h3>\n

It goes without saying that the extent to which you\u2019re evaluated as attractive, trustworthy, likeable and competent can influence important personal outcomes, such as your love life and employment prospects.<\/p>\n

But perhaps less intuitive is the fact that first impressions formed on the basis of an individual\u2019s facial appearance can have important consequences<\/a> for societal outcomes.<\/p>\n

Within politics, first impressions of competence predict electoral success<\/a>. Political candidates with more competent-looking faces win more votes and are more likely to win elections.<\/p>\n

In business, competent-looking CEOs<\/a> are more likely to be hired by large corporations and receive larger salaries. In the judicial system, individuals who have untrustworthy-looking faces are more likely to receive guilty verdicts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Face facts<\/h3>\n

Given first impressions predict such important personal and societal outcomes, we\u2019d want them to be highly accurate. The problem is, they\u2019re not.<\/p>\n

Research<\/a> has shown that people judge both criminals and non-criminals similarly in terms of their perceived trustworthiness.<\/p>\n

The lack of accuracy in our first impressions is further illustrated by inconsistency in the nature of first impressions assigned to different images of the exact same face.<\/p>\n

Consider the first impressions of facial attractiveness<\/a> as an example. Stable, biologically based features of a face, namely symmetry, averageness (mathematically average for the population) and sexual dimorphism (masculinity and femininity) are well established markers of facial attractiveness<\/a>. These are all attributes that remain constant across different images of a person\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

But research<\/a> shows that separate images of the same face will often receive very different attractiveness ratings. The variability in attractiveness ratings across images of a single person\u2019s face is on par with the variability in attractiveness ratings assigned to faces of different individuals.<\/p>\n

Similar findings have also been observed for other first impressions, including trustworthiness and competence<\/a>.<\/p>\n