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Success in the boardroom? Looks matter

Becoming a corporate CEO takes hard work, long hours and business acumen. It also requires a solid jawline and piercing eyes, a study has found.

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Source: SBS


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Finance professors at Duke University in the United States have found looks matter when it comes to success in the boardroom.

Titled A Corporate Beauty Contest, the study asked nearly 2,000 people to rate the facial traits of corporate CEOs alongside non-CEOs and the heads of smaller companies.

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The results suggest certain facial traits - including a strong jawline and small eyes - are regarded as markers of success.

Baby-faced CEOs 'less competent'

"Our results suggest that CEOs who look competent have higher pay, but their companies do not necessarily do better," said Manju Puri, who wrote the study along with fellow Fuqua School of Business finance professors Campbell Harvey and John Graham.

"So that should be a matter of concern."

Those deemed less competent tended to be baby-faced with large round eyes, high eyebrows and a small chin.

"People tend to rate such people as being more likable, more warm, more trustworthy, but less competent," Puri said.


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