The Role of Appearance in Perception of Leaders (Влияние внешнего вида на восприятие политиков и лидеров)

According to many experts, Warren Harding is considered as the worst American president. In the Republican primary in 1920, the two main candidates, Leonard Wood and Frank O. Lowden, were deadlocked. Harding was promoted as the third compromise candidate and he won the primary. Although Harding was not particularly smart, Harry Daugherty, known as an Ohio Republican party boss, promoted him because Harding “looked like a President.” In 1920 Harding won the election with 60%. His administration became best known for scandals involving bribery and incompetence (Hall, 2009).

Numerous researches indicated the impact of physical qualities on a variety of social judgments and as a result social outcomes such as leadership emergence.
The goal of this paper to look at different fields of research conce
ing physical appearance perception which can relate to leadership, understand the consequences of such perception on social outcomes and denote the directions for the future research.
First of all I look at adaptive functions of social perception. Then, I review how physical attractiveness can influence the leadership emergence. Thirdly, I will analyze the impact of facial dominance and babyishness. Then I will review the physical appearance cues and gender. After, I will analyze the judgments of trustworthiness and competence from human physical appearance. Next, I will examine the importance of physical stature. And finally, I will look at effects of similarity and familiarity.

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