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It grows on you: Perceptions of sales/service personnel with facial hair
Abstract
Service and sales personnel researchers have long been interested in the effects of physical appearance on sales and service outcomes. In the current work, we examine a specific physical feature—facial hair. Interestingly, evolutionary psychologists have found that facial hair does not consistently increase perceived attractiveness (Dixson and Vasey, 2012, Dixson et al., 2013), but it does serve as an indicator of masculine traits. The present research examines how males with beards are perceived in a sales/service specific context. We present five studies, in which the power of the beard (versus other facial hair styles or no hair) is evident. Sales personnel with a beard are perceived as having more expertise across various industries; furthermore, increased perceptions of expertise predict higher ratings of trustworthiness and, subsequently, increase consumers’ purchase likelihood.
... While this finding suggests male facial hair does not solely influence intra-sexually relevant traits, it replicates past findings (Craig et al., 2019). On one hand beardedness increases perceptions of positive social attributes like generosity, courageousness, self-confidence (Dixson & Brooks, 2013), competence and trustworthiness (Mittal & Silvera, 2020). Yet on the other hand facial hair reduces perceptions of warmth (Fetscherin et al., 2020) and increases perceptions of strength, dominance, and aggressiveness (Dixson, 2021). ...
Objectives
To test whether intra-sexual selection has influenced perceptions of male facial hair. We predicted that beards would increase the speed and accuracy of perceptions of angry but not happy facial expressions. We also predicted that bearded angry faces would receive the highest explicit ratings of masculinity and aggressiveness, whereas higher prosociality ratings would be ascribed to clean-shaven happy faces.MethodsA total of 106 participants, ranging from 17 to 59 years of age (M = 27.27, SD = 10.03); 59 were female and 47 were male (44.3%) completed an emotion categorization tasks and an explicit ratings task. Participants viewed faces of the same men when bearded, clean-shaven, and 10 days of natural growth (i.e. stubble) when posing angry and happy facial expressions.ResultsAngry facial expressions were categorised most rapidly and with the greatest accuracy on bearded faces, followed by faces with stubble then clean-shaven faces. Conversely, happy facial expressions were categorised most rapidly and with the greatest accuracy on clean-shaven faces, followed by stubbled faces then bearded faces. Irrespective of facial expression, full bearded faces received the highest ratings of masculinity followed by faces with stubble then clean-shaven faces. Aggressiveness ratings were highest for angry faces with full beards, followed by angry faces with stubble, with clean-shaven angry faces receiving the lowest ratings. In contrast to our prediction, bearded smiling faces were rated as significantly more prosocial than stubbled and clean-shaven smiling faces.Conclusions
These findings contribute further evidence that men’s beardedness represents an intra-sexually selected badge of status that enhances nonverbal threat potentially by augmenting underlying masculine facial structures.
Research on workplace surveillance highlights managerial initiatives to expand monitoring and make it less obtrusive, but we know relatively little about how to explain workers’ diverse responses to monitoring. Using ethnographic data collected at an electronics retailer, I suggest that gender-related status seeking between workers helps to account for variation in workers’ experience of and responses to workplace surveillance. Men used surveillance to demonstrate their skill and expertise relative to other men, a process I refer to as “manufacturing masculinity.” Although women also aspired to be strong and knowledgeable salespeople, they were treated as illegitimate competitors in men’s status contests. The company’s masculine culture primed workers to interpret surveillance through this gendered lens.
The study investigated the effect of the varying amounts of service providers’ facial hair (clean-shaven, light stubble, heavy stubble, light beard, and full beard) on participations’ perceptions of employee attractiveness, food handling issues, cleanliness, personal hygiene, as well as customer satisfaction, and loyalty within the restaurant context. A one-way ANOVA analysis was performed on a total of 514 U.S. consumers to examine the differences in their responses to the amounts of service providers’ facial hair. This research also employed a between-subjects 5 (types of facial hair) × 2 (individual preference for facial hair vs. individual no particular preference for facial hair) experimental design. The results revealed that there were significant differences in all five of the constructs for amounts of facial hair. There were also interaction effects between the amount of a service provider’s facial hair and customer’s individual preference for facial hair on the dependent variables (except for satisfaction). Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.
Sexual dimorphism in facial shape and beardedness are salient human secondary sexual traits that enhance perceptions of men’s social dominance. The majority of this evidence, however, comes from studies measuring explicit ratings. To our knowledge, few studies have tested whether facial masculinity and beardedness are implicitly associated with dominance. In the current study, we use a within-subjects design to test whether facial masculinity and beardedness drive implicit reactions and overt ratings of male dominance. Participants viewed stimuli depicting the same men when clean-shaven, with heavy stubble, and fully bearded that were morphed to be either more masculine or less masculine using computer graphic software. Participants completed an affective priming word categorisation task as well as explicit ratings of social dominance. No facilitation effects were observed for masculinised or bearded faces on implicit judgements relating to dominance. In contrast, results revealed that masculinized versions of clean-shaven, stubbled and fully bearded faces received higher explicit dominance ratings than feminized versions. However, the effects of facial masculinity were largest within clean-shaven stimuli and decreased as faces became more hirsute, suggesting that facial masculinity had diminishing returns on dominance ratings. Our results support a role for masculine facial shape and beardedness in explicit, but not implicit, judgments of dominance among men.
Facial hair, like many masculine secondary sexual traits, plays a significant role in perceptions of an array of sociosexual traits in men. While there is consensus that beards enhance perceptions of masculinity, age, social dominance, and aggressiveness, the perceived attractiveness of facial hair varies greatly across women. Given the ease with which facial hair can be groomed and removed entirely, why should some men retain beards and others choose to remove them? We hypothesized that men with relatively sexist attitudes would be more likely to allow their facial hair to grow than men with less sexist attitudes. Men from the USA (n = 223) and India (n = 309) completed an online survey measuring demographic variables, ambivalent sexism, and facial hair status. After controlling for demographic variables, men with facial hair were significantly higher in hostile sexism than clean-shaven men; hostile sexism was a significant predictor of facial hair status over and above demographic variables; and facial hair was more frequent among ambivalent and hostile sexists than among benevolent and non-sexists. It is suggested that sexist men choose to grow facial hair because it maximizes sexual dimorphism and augments perceived masculinity and dominance.
The beard is a strikingly sexually dimorphic androgen-dependent secondary sexual trait in humans. Darwin posited that beards
evolved in human ancestors via female choice as a highly attractive masculine adornment. Others have since proposed that beards
evolved as a signal of male status and dominance. Here, we show that women from two very different ethnic groups, Europeans
from New Zealand and Polynesians from Samoa, do not rate bearded male faces as more attractive than clean-shaven faces. Women
and men from both cultures judge bearded faces to be older and ascribe them higher social status than the same men when clean-shaven.
Images of bearded men displaying an aggressive facial expression were also rated as significantly more aggressive than the
same men when clean-shaven. Thus, the beard appears to augment the effectiveness of human aggressive facial displays. These
results are consistent with the hypothesis that the human beard evolved primarily via intrasexual selection between males
and as part of complex facial communication signaling status and aggressiveness.
This study explores whether wearing a beard in a LinkedIn profile picture affects a candidate’s prospects of being invited for a job interview and whether this is contingent on the type of job vacancy. Based on Ohanian’s (1990) three sub dimensions of credibility, three different job vacancies were constructed: (1) architect for an expertise-job, (2) back cashier officer for a trustworthiness-job, and (3) sales representative for an attractiveness-job. Results of a 2 (candidate: beard versus no beard) x 3 (job type: expertise, trustworthiness, attractiveness) experiment conducted among 216 participants show that bearded candidates are perceived as having more expertise than clean-shaven candidates. Moreover, a candidate’s perceived expertise is a significant predictor of the intention to invite the candidate for a job interview. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Negative frequency-dependent sexual selection maintains striking polymorphisms in secondary sexual traits in several animal species. Here, we test whether frequency of beardedness modulates perceived attractiveness of men's facial hair, a secondary sexual trait subject to considerable cultural variation. We first showed participants a suite of faces, within which we manipulated the frequency of beard thicknesses and then measured preferences for four standard levels of beardedness. Women and men judged heavy stubble and full beards more attractive when presented in treatments where beards were rare than when they were common, with intermediate preferences when intermediate frequencies of beardedness were presented. Likewise, clean-shaven faces were least attractive when clean-shaven faces were most common and more attractive when rare. This pattern in preferences is consistent with negative frequency-dependent selection.
The review of the literature reveals various relationships between the constructs of social identity, customer trust, and customer loyalty. Such results lead to questioning the nature of the conceptual structure that would include these constructs as well as their interrelationships in a structural model. From this perspective, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the mediating role of customer trust on customer loyalty in presence of corporate social identity in the context of financial institutions. Using data collected from 1296 customers-members of credit unions, the results of this study help to legitimize the idea that customer trust intervenes as a mediating variable that enhances the impact of corporate identity, corporate image and the reputation of the firm on customer loyalty. The implications of the study are discussed from both the research and managerial perspectives.
Facial hair strongly influences people's judgments of men's socio-sexual attributes. However, the nature of these judgments is often contradictory. The levels of intermediate facial hair growth presented to raters and the stage of female raters' menstrual cycles might have influenced past findings. We quantified men's and women's judgments of attractiveness, health, masculinity and parenting abilities for photographs of men who were clean-shaven, lightly or heavily stubbled and fully bearded. We also tested the effect of the menstrual cycle and hormonal contraceptive use on women's ratings. Women judged faces with heavy stubble as most attractive and heavy beards, light stubble and clean-shaven faces as similarly less attractive. In contrast, men rated full beards and heavy stubble as most attractive, followed closely by clean-shaven and light stubble as least attractive. Men and women rated full beards highest for parenting ability and healthiness. Masculinity ratings increased linearly as facial hair increased, and this effect was more pronounced in women in the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle, although attractiveness ratings did not differ according to fertility. Our findings confirm that beardedness affects judgments of male socio-sexual attributes and suggest that an intermediate level of beardedness is most attractive while full-bearded men may be perceived as better fathers who could protect and invest in offspring.
Exchange theories posit that trust has an important and favorable influence on dyadic interactions. This paper examines the notion that trust plays a key role in making a seller's tough bargaining strategy successful. In a bargaining experiment, we manipulated subjects' preconceptions about a seller's trustworthiness and bargaining toughness. As hypothesized, a seller's expected trustworthiness-plus-toughness in bargaining led to higher levels of buyer-seller cooperation and agreement and a higher level of buyer concessions.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a comprehensive model of customer trust in a retail service setting. Three levels of the customer-to-store relationship are simultaneously taken into account: customer to sales associates, customer to store branded products, and customer to the store itself. Design/methodology/approach – Using partial least square (PLS) on a sample of 393 customers of an Italian supermarket retailer, a model linking customer trust (in the store, in store branded products and in sales associates) to overall perceived value and store loyalty intentions and behaviors is tested. Subsequently an expanded model to determine the influence of managerially controlled antecedent variables (salespeople's trustworthiness, store environment, store assortment, and communications) is estimated on the various trust levels. Findings – Trust in the salesperson and trust in store branded products have positive effects on overall store trust. Store trust, in turn, increases perceived value and loyalty intentions. Looking at the drivers of the three levels of customer trust, salesperson trustworthiness positively affects only trust in the salesperson. Store environment has a positive impact only on overall trust in the store. Store communication fosters all three levels of customer trust, while store assortment increases both overall trust and trust in store branded products. Practical implications – Findings of the study suggest an alternative perspective to the dominant strategies in grocery retailing services. To foster store patronage, retailers have typically invested in price cuts, promotions and loyalty schemes. Store managers may rather use sales associates, the store environment, store assortment, store branded products, and communication to foster customer trust and increase customer loyalty. Managing store brands with the goal to build trust, as opposed to increase immediate profit margins, may call for a completely different approach to private labels. Similarly, the potential relevance of interpersonal trust may suggest retailers to devote more resources to selection, recruitment and training of sales associates, and may stimulate changes in evaluation criteria, incentive schemes and reward systems. Originality/value – The study aims at filling two important gaps in the literature: the scarcity of comprehensive store patronage models and the lack of exploration of the operational means of improving customer trust in retail services.
Literature in evolutionary psychology suggests that mate choice has been the primary mechanism of sexual selection in humans, but this conclusion conforms neither to theoretical predictions nor available evidence. Contests override other mechanisms of sexual selection; that is, when individuals can exclude their competitors by force or threat of force, mate choice, sperm competition, and other mechanisms are impossible. Mates are easier to monopolize in two dimensional mating environments, such as land, than in three-dimensional environments, such as air, water, and trees. Thus, two-dimensional mating environments may tend to favor the evolution of contests. The two-dimensionality of the human mating environment, along with phylogeny, the spatial and temporal clustering of mates and competitors, and anatomical considerations, predict that contest competition should have been the primary mechanism of sexual selection in men. A functional analysis supports this prediction. Men's traits are better designed for contest competition than for other sexual selection mechanisms; size, muscularity, strength, aggression, and the manufacture and use of weapons probably helped ancestral males win contests directly, and deep voices and facial hair signal dominance more effectively than they increase attractiveness. However, male monopolization of females was imperfect, and female mate choice, sperm competition, and sexual coercion also likely shaped men's traits. In contrast, male mate choice was probably central in women's mating competition because ancestral females could not constrain the choices of larger and more aggressive males through force, and attractive women could obtain greater male investment. Neotenous female features and body fat deposition on the breasts and hips appear to have been shaped by male mate choice.
This research analyses the effects of endorsers' beardedness (i.e., the state of being bearded) on their perceived credibility and consumers' purchase intention for various categories of products. According to Ohanian (1990), credibility is a construct with three sub-dimensions: attractiveness, the degree to which the source's physical appearance and/or its perceived personality is appealing; expertise, the extent to which the communicator is perceived as a source of valid assertions; and trustworthiness, the degree of confidence aroused in perceivers. Recent research has demonstrated the possibility of associating the three sub-dimensions of credibility with different categories of products, depending on whether these latter ones possess specific characteristics that are congruent with one or another sub-dimension. In line with this approach, results show that bearded endorsers are perceived to be more credible and to have a positive influence on purchase intention, but these effects occur only in relation to specific kinds of advertised products. Theoretical and operational implications for communication strategies are discussed.
Examines how different aspects of salesperson credibility—perceived expertise, trustworthiness, likability, and attractiveness—affect consumers' purchase intentions. The authors also investigated the influence of race and gender matches and mismatches between buyers and sellers on dimensions of salesperson credibility. The study was carried out using a hypothetical service purchase scenario in which student Ss viewed a photograph of a Personal Sales Representative (PSR) and answered questions about the likelihood of that PSR being credible across each dimension of credibility. Results suggest that perceived expertise, likability, and attractiveness predict purchase intention, but trustworthiness does not. The authors make two conclusions. First, the race of the buyer influences perceptions of salesperson credibility, particularly with regard to likability. Second, the Black salespeople (both male and female) depicted in this research were regarded most likable, most trustworthy, most attractive, and highest on expertise. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Employee trust is an integral part of the organizational behavior lexicon, but professional use seems to employ different referents for the trust invested. The goal here is to focus on a specific referent for trust -- managers -- and examine the extent to which trust varies among different levels of management. The data analyzed come from a larger study of two organizations, a large municipal fire department and a private manufacturing company. Three classes of variables are tested as a model of antecedent correlates of managerial trust: characteristics of the trustee (gender, ethnicity, years worked under the manager), characteristics of the organization (layoffs, managerial turnover), and characteristics of the manager (technical expertise and credibility). Although there were differences by manager (supervisor vs. CEO) and between the organizations, regression analyses indicate that overall the model fits the data well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In two experiments, the influence of physical appearance and sex on the attribution of leadership competence was analyzed. Participants (male/female) reacted to stimulus persons from one of four groups varying in terms of sex (male/female) and physical appearance (feminine/masculine). The stimulus persons were introduced via photographs. Dependent measures referred to the attribution of leadership characteristics and were measured either directly via ratings or indirectly via a recognition test. In both experiments, participants attributed higher degrees of leadership competence to persons with typically masculine appearance than to persons with typically feminine appearance, regardless of the person's sex. Only in the experiment with indirect measurement were male persons attributed a higher degree of leadership competence than female persons. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The effect on the impact of a message of explicitly stating a desire to persuade can depend on the communicator's physical attractiveness. Experiment 1 confirmed this possibility. Attractive male and female salespersons induced more positive attitudes and stronger intentions to purchase a product when they explicitly stated their desire to influence potential buyers. In contrast, unattractive salespersons were less likely to induce a favorable attitude toward the product under these conditions. Experiment 2 replicated these effects and provided evidence that they are mediated by the attribution of self-serving motives to the salesperson. A 2-step process of impression formation and attribution was used to describe the mechanisms underlying these effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Contemporary mate preferences can provide important clues to human reproductive history. Little is known about which characteristics people value in potential mates. Five predictions were made about sex differences in human mate preferences based on evolutionary conceptions of parental investment, sexual selection, human reproductive capacity, and sexual asymmetries regarding certainty of paternity versus maternity. The predictions centered on how each sex valued earning capacity, ambition— industriousness, youth, physical attractiveness, and chastity. Predictions were tested in data from 37 samples drawn from 33 countries located on six continents and five islands (total N = 10,047). For 27 countries, demographic data on actual age at marriage provided a validity check on questionnaire data. Females were found to value cues to resource acquisition in potential mates more highly than males. Characteristics signaling reproductive capacity were valued more by males than by females. These sex differences may reflect different evolutionary selection pressures on human males and females; they provide powerful cross-cultural evidence of current sex differences in reproductive strategies. Discussion focuses on proximate mechanisms underlying mate preferences, consequences for human intrasexual competition, and the limitations of this study.
Several effects of the physical attractiveness stereotype were assessed in a personal selling context. In a series of three experiments it was established that: (a) More favorable selling skills are attributed to physically attractive salespersons than to their unattractive counterparts; (b) in simulated sales scenarios, buyers treat ostensibly attractive sellers more cordially and are more likely to yield to their requests than is the case for unattractive sellers; and (c) in actual solicitations for a charitable organization, attractive persons induce a compliance rate significantly higher than that induced by unattractive solicitors. Results of the experiments, which are consistent with extant literature on physical attractiveness, are discussed in terms of commercially inspired interpersonal influence.
Adults use features such as facial hair to judge others' social dominance and mate value, but the origin of these judgments is unknown. We sought to determine when these associations develop, which associations develop first, and whether they are associated with early exposure to bearded faces. We presented pairs of bearded and clean-shaven faces to children (2–17 years old; N = 470) and adults (18–22 years; N = 164) and asked them to judge dominance traits (strength, age, masculinity) and mate choice traits (attractiveness, parenting quality). Young children associated beardedness with dominance traits but not mate choice traits. This pattern became more extreme during late childhood and gradually shifted toward adult-like responses during early adolescence. Responses for all traits were adult-like in late adolescence. Finally, having a bearded father was associated with positive judgments of bearded faces for mate choice traits in childhood and both mate choice and dominance traits in adolescence.
Marketing theory and practice have focused persistently on exchange between buyers and sellers. Unfortunately, most of the research and too many of the marketing strategies treat buyer-seller exchanges as discrete events, not as ongoing relationships. The authors describe a framework for developing buyer-seller relationships that affords a vantage point for formulating marketing strategy and for stimulating new research directions.
In contemporary human societies, where direct male-male competition is reduced compared to ancestral societies, sporting competitions remain an avenue for status acquisition via intra-sexual competition. Beards are the most visually salient and sexually dimorphic of men's secondary sexual traits and play a strong role in communicating masculinity, dominance and aggressiveness intra-sexually. Hypotheses have been advanced that beards provide advantages in intra-sexual combat, as protective organs and honest signals of fighting ability. Here we provide the first test of these hypotheses using data from professional mixed martial arts fighters competing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. We explored whether secondary sexual traits (height, weight, beardedness), fighting stance (southpaw, orthodox), arm reach and past contest experiences impact on contest outcomes. If beards function as protective organs, bearded fighters should succumb to fewer knock-outs, and hence protection to injuries to the jaw, fewer abrasions and lacerations to the face and brain damage than clean-shaven fighters. Alternatively, if beards signal fighting ability then bearded fighters should win more fights. We found no evidence that beardedness was associated with fewer losses by knock-out or greater fighter ability. While fighters with longer reaches won more fights, neither stance nor past experience influenced fight outcomes. We suggest that beards represent dishonest signals of formidability that may serve to curtail the escalation of intra-sexual conflict through intimidation rather than providing advantages in direct combat.
LinkedIn is the largest professional social network site in the world, designed for professional
networking, job seeking, and recruitment. The current study explores visual self-presentation in LinkedIn
user portraits. LinkedIn portraits serve alongside explicit data posted in users’ profiles as a tool for
professional self-presentation, yet they have hardly been studied. In the absence of scientific recommendations,
non-academic websites offer recommendations for the optimal portrait. In this study, we
aimed, first, to identify the common features of LinkedIn portraits and to determine whether they adhere
to the popular recommendations found on the Internet. Second, we offered grounded hypotheses suggesting
that LinkedIn portraits, and other features of LinkedIn accounts, would show gender and occupational
differences. Using a representative city in the United States, 480 LinkedIn portraits and accounts
were selected and analyzed. Results indicate that LinkedIn portraits display common features and tend to
adhere to popular recommendations. Women were more likely than men to signal emotions, whereas
men were more likely to signal status. No occupational differences were detected. The findings suggest
that two opposing forces shape self-presentation in LinkedIn portraits. Specifically, social norms,
corporate culture, and popular advice drive users to display standard business-like portraits, while
gender-related self-expression inspires users to display their uniqueness and attractiveness. These pioneering
findings can inform scholars and practitioners on impression management processes in professional
online settings.
Much and significant research was done for more than 100 years in the area of leadership. However, with the exception of the studies by Hodgetts (1968) and Thamhain and Gemmill (1974), not much has been done in the area of project leadership. This paper presents the findings of four research studies in this area. Among others, the findings show that professionally challenging projects are the single most important factor influencing the behavior of project team members. Team members need to be challenged, they respect leaders who know how to properly exercise their authority, and they need to believe in their leaders, both in terms of the leaders' competence and ethical character.
Facial hair is a prominent secondary sexual trait, particularly given the importance of the face in interpersonal communication. Bizarrely by animal standards, men expend considerable effort every day trimming, waxing or shaving this androgen-dependent trait. Why some men shave this cue of masculinity off, and why women's preferences for facial hair vary so dramatically, remains largely unresolved. Using a large cross-cultural sample, we explore city- and nation-level variation in preferences for beards and in facial hair grooming patterns to test how economic and demographic conditions alter frequency-dependence in preferences for beardedness. We found that women's preferences for beards were strongest in countries with lower average incomes. Beards were most common in cities with larger populations, in countries where women express stronger preferences for facial hair and life expectancy was higher. Frequencies of non-beard facial hair styles (e.g. moustaches, goatees) were most common in large cities, but were unrelated to any demographic factors. Our results suggest a role for female choice in shaping large-scale patterns of facial hair grooming and highlight that under crowded conditions with high anonymity, displays of masculinity may be amplified.
Converging evidence suggests men's beards, like many androgen-dependent masculine secondary sexual traits, communicate masculinity and dominance intra-sexually while effects of men's beardedness on attractiveness ratings are more equivocal. Beards may enhance perceived masculinity and dominance via amplifying aspects of underlying craniofacial masculinity, particularly the size of the lower face and jaw. Here we tested these predictions across two studies. In Study 1, we tested how three facial metrics - objectively measured craniofacial masculinity, facial-width-to-height ratio (fWHR), and jaw size - calculated while clean-shaven impacted on ratings of attractiveness, masculinity and dominance of 37 men photographed when clean-shaven and with full beards. Results showed that beards exerted significant and positive effects on masculinity, dominance and to a lesser extent attractiveness. However, fWHR did not significantly interact with beardedness to influence the directions of any of the ratings, and while some linear and nonlinear interactions were significant between objective craniofacial masculinity and beardedness as well as between jaw size and beardedness, they tended to be subtle and dwarfed by the large main effect of beardedness on perceptual ratings. In Study 2, we measured ratings of attractiveness, masculinity and dominance for composite clean-shaven and bearded stimuli experimentally manipulated in facial shape to represent ±50% the shape of a beard, essentially manipulating the size of the lower face and jaw of the stimuli. We found a strong main effect whereby bearded stimuli enhanced dominance and masculinity ratings over clean-shaven stimuli. Increasing the size of the lower face and jaw augmented ratings of masculinity and dominance in clean-shaven stimuli but did not exert strong effects within bearded stimuli. Attractiveness ratings were highest for bearded faces with smaller jaws followed by bearded and clean-shaven faces with larger jaws and lowest for clean-shaven faces with small jaws. Taken together, our findings suggest that beards exert main effects on masculinity and dominance possibly by amplifying male typical facial shape. Attractiveness ratings of facial hair may reflect a compromise between overly dominant looking faces with larger jaws and the additive effects beardedness has on these ratings.
Connie, the poor Latino heroine of Woman on the Edge of Time who has been diagnosed as insane and repeatedly institutionalized, is represented here pitted against a phalanx of experts. The image epitomizes the ‘cognitive politics’ (Keller, 1990, p. 180) around gender and expertise which emerged with the women’s liberation movement in parts of Europe, North America, and Australasia in the 1970s. Since then the terms ‘expertise’ and ‘gender’ have had notable currency in the English speaking world. The term gender refers to the social construction of the categories feminine and masculine, whereas sex refers to the biological categories female and male.1 Feminists adopted the terminology of gender, because it enabled them to contest the ‘naturalness’ of inequality between men and women, and so open the possibility of change.
The authors integrate theory developed in several disciplines to determine five cognitive processes through which industrial buyers can develop trust of a supplier firm and its salesperson. These processes provide a theoretical framework used to identify antecedents of trust. The authors also examine the impact of supplier firm and salesperson trust on a buying firm's current supplier choice and future purchase intentions. The theoretical model is tested on data collected from more than 200 purchasing managers. The authors find that several variables influence the development of supplier firm and salesperson trust. Trust of the supplier firm and trust of the salesperson (operating indirectly through supplier firm trust) influence a buyer's anticipated future interaction with the supplier. However, after controlling for previous experience and supplier performance, neither trust of the selling firm nor its salesperson influence the current supplier selection decision.
The present study investigated the contribution of men's facial hair to impression formation. Participants evaluated photographs of one of four versions of a man-clean shaven, mustached, goateed, or bearded-on a 7-point scale. In Study 1, participants were 106 Brazilian undergraduates (68 men and 38 women). Beardedness was associated with older age, greater responsibility, and leftist political ideas. In Study 2, respondents were 50 Brazilian personnel managers (28 men and 22 women) who made hiring decisions at different companies in the city of Sao Paulo. Personnel managers clearly preferred clean shaven over bearded, mustached, or goateed men as prospective employees. In a hiring situation for a conservative Occupation, a man who signals disposition to conform to rules may be preferred by personnel managers over another who signals nonconformity.
Although trust is an underdeveloped concept in sociology, promising theoretical formulations are available in the recent work
of Luhmann and Barber. This sociological version complements the psychological and attitudinal conceptualizations of experimental
and survey researchers. Trust is seen to include both emotional and cognitive dimensions and to function as a deep assumption
underwriting social order. Contemporary examples such as lying, family exchange, monetary attitudes, and litigation illustrate
the centrality of trust as a sociological reality.
Preferences of 482 Caucasian female college students for males' beardedness were investigated through a questionnaire. Observed low levels of liking for beardedness contrast markedly with earlier research on other college populations. The influence of region and rurality on political and social conservatism was discussed as a possible explanation for variation among studies of reaction to male beardedness.
This article applies what the behavioral sciences know about trust to industrial sales situations. Trust between an industrial buyer and salesperson is defined cognitively and behaviorally. A model of this trust-building process is presented and appropriate behaviors for sales representatives who wish to build trust are discussed. The interactions between experience, general knowledge, and trust building are examined in light of possible situations a sales representative might encounter. The findings suggest that both firm and salesperson can act positively to build and maintain trust with their clients.
The purpose of this study was to develop a scale for measuring celebrity endorsers' perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. Accepted psychometric scale-development procedures were followed which rigorously tested a large pool of items for their reliability and validity. Using two exploratory and two confirmatory samples, the current research developed a 15-item semantic differential scale to measure perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. The scale was validated using respondents' self-reported measures of intention to purchase and perception of quality for the products being tested. The resulting scale demonstrated high reliability and validity.
Psychological evidence suggests that sex differences in morphology have been modified by sexual selection so as to attract mates (intersexual selection) or intimidate rivals (intrasexual selection). Women compete with each other for high quality husbands by advertising reproductive value in terms of the distribution of fat reserves and by exaggerating morphological indicators of youthfulness such as a small nose and small feet and pale, hairless skin. Men's physical appearance tends to communicate social dominance, which has the combined effects of intimidating reproductive rivals and attracting mates. In addition to their attractiveness and intimidatory effects, human secondary sexual characters also provide cues to hormonal status and phenotypic quality consistent with the good genes model of sexual selection (which includes parasite resistance). Low waist-hip ratio is sexually attractive in women and indicates a high estrogen/testosterone ratio (which favors reproductive function). Facial attractiveness provides honest cues to health and mate value. The permanently enlarged female breast appears to have evolved under the influence of both the good genes and the runaway selection mechanisms. The male beard is not obviously related to phenotypic quality and may have evolved through a process of runaway intersexual selection.
This study investigated how industrial salespeople gain the trust of their customers. Results show that trust increases as the customer gains the impression that the salesperson is dependable, honest, competent, customer oriented, and likeable. Based on the results, a general model of trust building is suggested.
In spite of feminist recognition that hierarchical organizations are an important location of male dominance, most feminists writing about organizations assume that organizational structure is gender neutral. This article argues that organizational structure is not gender neutral; on the contrary, assumptions about gender underlie the documents and contracts used to construct organizations and to provide the commonsense ground for theorizing about them. Their gendered nature is partly masked through obscuring the embodied nature of work. Abstract jobs and hierarchies, common concepts in organizational thinking, assume a disembodies and universal worker. This worker is actually a man; men's bodies, sexuality, and relationships to procreation and paid work are subsumed in the image of the worker. Images of men's bodies and masculinity pervade organizational processes, marginalizing women and contributing to the maintenance of gender segregation in organizations. The positing of gender-neutral and disembodied organizational structures and work relations is part of the larger strategy of control in industrial capitalist societies, which, at least partly, are built upon a deeply embedded substructure of gender difference.
Purpose – This paper seeks to explore drivers and consequences of customer trust in the salesperson in the financial services industry. Its theoretical foundations are based on literature on customers' interpersonal relationships with salespeople and front-line employees, as well as on literature in the area of customer trust. Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual model, specifying a set of hypotheses linking a salesperson's behaviours to customer trust, and the latter to behavioural loyalty intentions, was tested using partial least squares (PLS) on a sample of 150 customers in the Italian banking industry. Multiple models were compared in order to evaluate the mediating role of customer trust. Findings – The results of the empirical study show that both salesperson's customer orientation and expertise positively influence customer trust in the salesperson. Conversely, selling orientation has a negative impact on it. Moreover, a salesperson's likeability does not influence customer trust. Finally, trust in the salesperson positively influences a customer's intentions to re-buy/cross-buy and to recommend, while it decreases a customer's intention to switch to competitors. Research limitations/implications – The study suggests that different relational antecedents may have different impacts on different relational mediators and outcomes. Since the mechanisms of interpersonal relationship formation and development are multifaceted, to understand fully the complexity of relational phenomena researchers should develop and test models incorporating multiple relational antecedents and outcomes. Practical implications – The study provides sales managers with some evidence of the behaviours that salespeople should adopt to influence successfully the creation of long-term relationships, especially in the context of “credence” services. The findings suggest that the optimal behaviours of salespeople may vary, depending on the ultimate goal of the sellers' relational strategy. The authors suggest drivers that managers can leverage to stimulate salespeople to perform the desired behaviours. Originality/value – The model tested in the empirical study highlights the mediating role of customer trust and incorporates a broad set of drivers and consequences of interpersonal trust. As such, it improves knowledge of trust-building processes in the context of credence services, where trust and interpersonal relationships are very relevant.
It was predicted that men would emphasize sexually-selected traits, including mustaches, beards, and sideburns, when they have difficulty obtaining spouses. Using annual data on British beard fashions extending from 1842–1971, it was found that mustaches, and facial hair in general, are more frequent when there is a good supply of single men of marriageable age. Facial hair fashions, particularly mustaches and beards, were reduced when illegitimacy ratios were high. Regression analyses showed that the relationship between mustache fashion and the marriage market and illegitimacy, respectively, is independent of linear time trend. Results suggest that facial hair is worn to enhance a man's marriage prospects by increasing physical attractiveness and perception of social status. Men shave their mustaches, possibly to convey an impression of trustworthiness, when the marriage market is weak and women might fear sexual exploitation and desertion.
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The influence of facial hair on the perception of a job applicant by persons in business was examined in this study. Subjects were 228 persons in management positions who made hiring decisions. Subjects were shown ink sketches of six male job applicants. The sketches varied on three facial hair dimensions-clean shaven, moustached, and bearded. Sketches were evaluated on semantic differential scales. Results indicated consistently more positive perceptions of social/physical attractiveness, personality, competency, and composure for men with facial hair.
Investigated the influence of salespersons' race and sex on initial impressions of White buyers. 107 White organizational buyers and civilian governmental buyers (average age 38.2 yrs) viewed artist sketches of sales personnel differentiated only by race and sex and responded to a hypothetical buying scenario through a descriptive adjectives instrument (J. Wilding and A. B. Raymond, 1968). Factor analysis showed the 3-factor structure of competence/trust, power, and likability. Black females were perceived as the strongest on the power factor, and significantly more so than White females and Black males. White males were perceived as stronger on the likability factor than both Black males and females while White females were perceived as stronger than Black females on the likability factor. Results showed no significant main effect for gender or significant gender-treatment interaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)