In advertising, you have the option to choose from dozens of models to be the ‘face of your brand’. When it comes to your CEO however, you don’t have a choice. But does the ‘brand face’ really matter when it comes to public relations?

Professor Gerald J. Gorn, chair of the marketing department at the University of Hong Kong, thinks that it does - especially when your CEO is the key spokesperson during a crisis that threatens to undermine the company’s reputation as an honest corporate citizen.

No doubt other visual cues such as body language and tone of voice will impact people’s perceptions, but when it all boils down to a profile shot of your top executive in the news, whether he or she has a ‘babyface’ or a mature face could influence how well your message will go down.

In a study conducted by Professor Gorn, Gita Venkataramani Johar of Columbia University and fellow consumer psychologist Yuwei Jiang, a research team used imaging software to manipulate the facial features of hand picked subjects so they would morph from ‘babyfaces’ (ie. large eyes, small nose, high forehead and small chin) into ‘mature faces’. Clothing and hairstyles were kept exactly the same.

Test groups were then shown ‘news articles’ on companies embroiled in tainted product scandals, with either of these images representing the chief executives of those companies. Participants were asked for their perceptions of the CEO’s honesty or innocence, and the credibility of their denials of wrongdoing.

The results show that corporate spokespersons with ‘babyfaces’ were more likely to elicit perceptions of trustworthiness and honesty, when conveying company statements during a PR crisis, than mature faces.

Perceived credibility in turn, affects attitudes towards companies – and as we have seen in the real world, their stock prices.

We quizzed Prof Gorn further on this issue.

Q: What inspired you to study the subject of ‘babyface’ CEOs?

“I was first inspired by an article on the effects of face structure on perception. My colleagues and I were curious about the powerful effects that supposedly superficial characteristics, such as face structure, have on perception. Is there an unconscious bias in the way we process what people say because of their physical features?

Our study was based on an intuition that our tendency to associate babies with innocence will influence our perceptions of people with ‘babyface’ face structures - that they too tend to be more honest.”

Q: The images you tested were of Chinese men. Will your findings be relevant in India or Australia for example? Will it also apply for women CEOs?

“‘Babyface’ effects have been studied before. Dr. Leslie A. Zebrowitz is the expert. Her work, and the work of others, has been with Caucasian faces. Her research has shown that babyfaced Caucasian individuals are seen as physically weaker, more submissive and less competent.

There are babyface effects with females too, but the effect is more pronounced with males.”

Q: There are different types of crisis that CEOs may be called upon to answer for. Examples include technological disasters, workplace violence, misplaced management values, acts of deception and management misconduct. Will babyface CEOs be viewed more favourably in terms of their integrity in some circumstances versus others? Please elaborate.

“In our experiments, participants rated ‘babyfaced’ CEOs as having less of an intention to deceive than the mature faced CEO. And our research went on to test and prove that the links between ‘babyfacesness’ and honesty were completely unconscious.

I am not a PR expert. But I would say that if there is a need to convey the message of unintentional wrongdoing, a babyface spokesperson can  help reinforce that assertion.

If however, the crisis is particularly severe, when there is loss of life or serious environmental damage for example, then a babyface spokesperson may in reverse, be viewed as incompetent.”

Q: In which cases will ‘mature-face’ spokespersons be seen to be more credible?

“In situations where corporate vigilance is highly valued.

In one of our experiments, we constructed a situation in which a company recovering from a PR crisis was searching for a new CEO. We found that a mature-faced new CEO was viewed to be a better choice to lead the company out of the crisis in a vigilance-in-doubt scenario, whereas a ‘babyfaced’ CEO was preferred in an honesty-in-doubt scenario.”

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