Persuasive Communication - How Audiences Decide. 2nd Edition

Person Perception in Audience Decision Making 267

of candidates they did not recognize. Their task was to judge which person in each pair looked

more competent. The candidate judged to have the more competent-looking face won the actual

election in two-thirds of the trials.^79

Audiences also use nonverbal behaviors as visual cues to identify leaders and other dominant

individuals.^80 Employees can accurately predict a professional’s organizational status based on

nonverbal behaviors depicted in photographs—downward head tilt for women, formal dress and

forward lean for men.^81 Audiences perceive those who maintain a closer interaction distance and

who touch others, especially when the touch is nonreciprocal, to have higher status and to be more

leader-like.^82 Audiences perceive those with more youthful gaits to be more powerful, regardless of

their gender or age.^83 Audiences also perceive out-stretched arms as indicating dominance typical

of leaders.^84 In fact, audiences tend to perceive any expansive gesture, such as pointing at others or

gesturing to direct others, as dominant.^85

In a study of the leadership perceptions of top managers, 26 senior managers watched video

recorded interviews of 22 mid-level managers from the same industry and rated each one’s leader-

ship potential. The study revealed that the senior managers’ ratings of mid-level managers were

signifi cantly correlated with the mid-level managers’ scores on fi ve nonverbal visual dimensions:

physical attractiveness, amount of smiling, amount of gaze in the direction of the interviewer,

amount of hand movement, and the extent to which the mid-level manager leaned toward, instead

of away from, the interviewer.^86

Eye contact plays an especially important role in the audience’s identifi cation of leaders. In

one study, 120 students watched videos in which an interviewee maintained eye contact with an

interviewer for either 15, 30, or 50 seconds. The results demonstrated that students perceived the

interviewee to be more powerful as her eye contact increased.^87 Another study of job applicants’ eye

contact in interviews fi nds that it is especially important for high-status applicants to maintain eye

contact with the recruiter during their interviews.^88 It is also important for presenters to maintain

good eye contact. Audience perceptions of a speaker’s status and power are associated with a high

degree of eye contact while speaking.^89

Facial displays of emotions also help the audience identify leaders. Audiences infer that people

with happy faces are both high in dominance and high in likeability, that people with angry faces

are high in dominance but low in likeability, and that people with fearful faces are low in domi-

nance.^90 Moreover, a leader’s facial expression of fear or evasion tends to undermine support for the

leader and can disturb their followers.^91

In addition to using nonverbal visual cues, audiences also use a number of nonverbal vocal cues

to identify leaders. For example, audiences associate short response latencies, or pauses, as well as

loudness with dominance.^92 Speakers with lower-pitched voices are also perceived to be more

dominant, more competent, but less warm than those with childlike voices.^93 Speakers who vary

the pitch of their voice come across as more leader-like—dynamic, extroverted, benevolent, and

competent—than those who speak in a monotone.^94 Longer talking time generally communicates

leadership as well,^95 although the quality of what is said also matters.^96

To a large extent, vocal cues determine whether a leader will be perceived as charismatic. Voters

rate political leaders as more charismatic when they vary their pitch and amplitude, or loudness,

and speak at a faster pace than normal.^97 Followers also rate leaders as more charismatic when the

leaders’ speeches combine visionary content with expressive vocal delivery.^98

The study of 26 senior managers described previously also found that the senior managers’ leader-

ship ratings of mid-level managers were signifi cantly correlated with the mid-level managers’ scores on