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ERIC Number: ED318967
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1990-Apr-6
Pages: 14
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Attractiveness and Leader Style: Evaluations of Male and Female Leaders by Male and Female Evaluators.
Sopasakis, Maria; Snodgrass, Sara E.
Previous research has suggested that men are stereotypically believed to be better leaders than women; that more physically attractive people are evaluated more positively than less attractive people; and that men and women use different leadership styles. This study examined the interactions of sex, leader style, and physical attractiveness on evaluations of leaders. College student subjects (N=154) rated leaders of an audiotaped college committee meeting on perceived attractiveness, likability, effectiveness as a leader, and other items related to their perceptions of the leader. Sex of leader, attractiveness of leader (from photographs), and leader style (autocratic versus participative) were crossed and rated by male and female subjects. Strong main effects showed that the manipulations were effective. The predicted interaction that women would be rated more negatively when autocratic and unattractive was not significant, but a four-way interaction with subject sex showed that the predicted bias held only for male subjects and that female subjects held similar bias towards male leaders. Attractive leaders were not rated as more effective overall, nor were participative leaders rated as more effective overall. (Author/ABL)
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association (36th, Atlanta, GA, April 4-7, 1990).