CATEGORIZING LEADERS BASED ON THEIR GAZE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2017.32.16031618Keywords:
Leadership, Visual, Gaze, Membership Categorization AnalysisAbstract
The visual dimension of leadership has been emphasized in our contemporary, visual, era. This research discusses visual elements, and more specifically the gaze, as signs of leadership. Nine portrait paintings were shown to the participants, who were seven persons working in the field of social and health care, front-line managers and researchers. The participants were asked to reflect on the leadership qualities of the people in the paintings. The data was analyzed by membership categorization analysis in order to study what kinds of leadership categories the participants created on the basis of the visual qualities of the leaders’ gaze. Four categories of leaders were recognized in the analysis: egotistic leader, uncertain leader, indifferent leader, and communicative leader. This research raises the question of how conscious we are of the power of visual features in our interpretations of leadership, which can become concretized, for example, during recruitment.
References
Adams, R.B. Jr., & Kleck, R.E. (2005). Effects of direct and averted gaze on the perception of facially communicated emotion. Emotion, 5(1), 3-11 https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.5.1.3
Ames, D.R., & Bianchi, E.C. (2008). The agreeableness asymmetry in first impression: Perceivers’ impulse to (mis)judge agreeableness and how it is moderated by power. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(12), 1719-1736 https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208323932
Bavelas, J.B, Coates, L., & Johnson, T. (2002). Listener responses as a collaborative process: The role of gaze. Journal of Communication, 52(3), 566-80. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2002.tb02562.x
Brimingham E., Bischof, W.F., & Kingstone, A. (2009). Get real! Resolving the debate about equivalent social stimuli. Visual Cognition, 17(6-7), 904-924. https://doi.org/10.1080/13506280902758044
Bowker, G.C., & Star, S.L. (2000). Sorting things out. Classification and its consequences. Cambridge (Massachusetts), London: The MIT Press.
Buck, R., & VanLear, A.C. (2002). Verbal and nonverbal communication: Distinguishing symbolic, spontaneous, and pseudo-spontaneous nonverbal behavior. Journal of Communication, 52(3), 522-541 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2002.tb02560.x
Castelhano, M.S., Wieth, M., & Henderson. J.M. (2007). I see what you see: Eye movements in real-world scenes are affected by perceived direction of gaze. L. Paletta & E. Rome (Eds.), Attention in cognitive systems. Theories and systems from an interdisciplinary viewpoint (pp. 251-262). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Cherulnik, P.D., Turns, L.C. & Wilderman, S.K. (1990). Physical appearance and leaderhsip: Exploring the role of appearance-based attribution in leader emergence. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 20(18), 1461-1539 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1990.tb01491.x
Congo-Poottaren, N. (2017). The influence of impression management of school leaders on followers: A case study in a secondary school in Mauritius. PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences, 3(1), 741-760. https://doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2017.s31.741760.
Driver, J., Davis, G., Riccardelli, P., Kidd, P., Maxwell, E., & Baron-Cohen, S. (1999). Gaze perception triggers reflexive visuospatial orienting. Visual Cognition, 6(5), 282-294. https://doi.org/10.1080/135062899394920
Ekman, P. (1973). Darwin and facial expression: A century of research in review. New York, NY: Academic Press.
Emery, N.J. (2000). The eyes have it: The neuroethology, function and evolution of social gaze. Neuroscience and Behavioral Reviews, 24, 581-604 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0149-7634(00)00025-7
Fitzgerald, R. (2015). Membership categorization analysis. K. Tracy, C. Ilie, & T. Sandel (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of language and social interaction (pp. 1-11). New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118611463.wbielsi018
Fox, E., Calder, A.J., Mathews, A., & Yiend, J. (2007). Anxiety and sensitivity to gaze direction in emotionally expressive faces. Emotion, 7(3), 478-486 https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.7.3.478
Freeman, J. B., & Ambady, N. (2014). The dynamic interactive model of person construal. Coordinating sensory and social processes. J. W. Sherman, B. Gawronski & Y. Trope (Eds.), Dual-processing theories of the social mind (pp.235-248). New York, London: The Guilford Press.
Gullberg, M. (2002). Eye movements and gestures in human interaction. J. Hyona, R. Radach & H. Deubel (Eds.). The mind’s eye: Cognitive and applied aspects of eye movement research (pp. 685-703). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Goleman, D. (1998). Working with emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam Books.
Hall, J.A., & Mast, M.S. (2007). Sources of accuracy in the emphatic accuracy paradigm. Emotion, 7(2), 438-446. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.7.2.438.
Hester, S., & Eglin, P. (1997). Membership categorization analysis. An Introduction. S. Hester & P. Eglin (Eds.), Culture in action. Studies in membership categorization analysis (pp. 1-23). Washington, DC: University Press of America.
Hietanen, J.K. & Leppänen, J.M. (2003). Does facial expression affect attention orienting by gaze direction cues? Journal of Experimental Psychology, 29(6), 1228-1243.
https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.29.6.1228
Ho, S., Foulsham, T., & Kingstone, A. (2015). Speaking and listening with the eyes: Gaze signaling during dyadic interactions. In PloS One, 10(8) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0136905
Holmes, A., Richards, A., & Green, S. (2006). Anxiety and sensitivity to eye gaze in emotional faces. Brain and Cognition, 60(3), 282-294 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2005.05.002
Housley, W. & Fitzgerald, R. (2015). Introduction to membership categorization analysis. R. Fitzgerald & W. Housley (Eds.), Advances in membership categorization analysis (pp. 1-21). Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, New York: Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473917873.n7 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473917873.n1 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473917873.n8
Ilies, R., Cursey, P.L., Dimotakis, N., & Spitzmuller, M. (2013). Leaders’ emotional expressiveness and their behavioural and relational authenticity: Effects of followers. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2011.626199
Itier, R. J., Villate, C., & Ryan, J.D. (2007). Eyes always attract attention but gaze orienting is task-dependent: Evidence from eye movement monitoring. Neuropsychologia, 45(5), 1019-1029. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.09.004
Jayyusi, L. (1984). Categorization and the moral order. Boston, London, Melbourne and Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Kendon A. (1967). Some functions of gaze direction in social interaction. Acta Psychologica, 26(1), 22-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-6918(67)90005-4
Kobayashi, H., & Koshima, S. (2001). Unique morphology of the human eye and its adaptive meaning: Comparative studies on external morphology of the primate eye. Journal of Human Evolution, 40(5), 419-35. https://doi.org/10.1006/jhev.2001.0468
Lepper, G. (2002). Categories in text and talk: A practical introduction to categorization analysis. London: SAGE.
Lewin, K., Lippitt, R., & White, R.K. (1939). Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social climates. Journal of Social Psychology, (10)2, 269-299 https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1939.9713366
Lewis, K.M. (2000). When leaders display emotion: How followers respond to negative emotional expression of male and female leaders. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21(2), 221-234. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1379(200003)21:2<221::AID-JOB36>3.0.CO;2-0
Little, A.C. (2014). Facial appearance and leader choice in different contexts: Evidence for task and contingent selection based on implicit and learned face-bahaviour/face-ability associations. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(5), 865-874. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.04.002
Liuzza, M.T., Cazzato, V., Crostella, F., Caprara, Gian V., & Aglioti, S.M. (2011). Follow my eyes: The gaze of politicians reflexively captures the gaze of ingroup voters. PLoS ONE, 6(9). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0025117
Macdonald, R.G., & Tatler, B.W. (2013). Do as eye say: Gaze cueing and language in a real-world social interaction. Journal of Vision, 13(5), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1167/13.4.6
Martikainen, J. (2011). Käsitettävä taidehistoria. Kuvalähtöinen malli taidehistorian opetukseen. (Grasping art history. A picture-based method in teaching art history.) University of Jyväskylä: Jyväskylä.
Martikainen, J., & Hujala, A. (2017). Johtajuuden visuaaliset kategoriat (Visual categories of leadership). Sosiologia, 54(1), 43-62.
Mcdermott, R. (2014). Experimental analysis. R.A.W. Rhodes & P.T. Hart (Eds.), The Oxford handbood of political leadership (267-280). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nana, E.; Jackson, B., & Burch, St. J. (2010). Attributing leaderhisp personality and effectiveness from the leader’s face: An explanatory study. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 31(8), 720-742. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731011094775
Nualsi, S., & Chaiya, P. (2016). The influence of cultural communication factors on English communication in an international service industry. PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences, 2(1), 355-369. https://doi.org/10.20319/pijss.2016.s21.355369
Nummenmaa L., Hyönä, J., & Hietanen, J.K. (2009). I’ll walk this way: Eyes reveal the direction of locomotion and make passersby look and go the other way. Psychological Science, 20(12), 1454-1458 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02464.x
Olivola, C.Y, Eubanks, D.L., Lovelace, J.B. (2014). The many (distinctive) faces of leadership: Inferring leadership domain from facial appearance. The Leadership Quarterly, 22(5), 817-843. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.06.002
Sacks, H. (1972). Notes on police assessment of moral character. D. Sudnow (Ed.), Studies in social interaction (pp. 280-293). New York: The Free Press.
Sacks, H. (1992). Lectures on conversation (vol I). Edited by G. Jefferson. Oxford UK & Cambridge USA: Blackwell.
Seppänen, J. (2006). The power of gaze. An introduction to visual literacy. New York: Peter Lang.
Skowronski, J. J., & Ambady, N. (2008). First impressions: Rationales and roadmap. N. Ambady & J. J. Skowronski (Eds.), First impressions (pp. 1-11). New York, London: The Guilford Press.
Spisak, B.R., Homan, A.C., Grabo, A., & Van Vugt, M. (2012). Facing the situation: Testing a biosocial contingency model of leadership in intergroup relations using masculine and feminine faces. Leadership Quarterly, 23(2), 273-280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.08.006
Stroker, J.I, Garretsen, H., & Spreeuwers, L.J. (2016). The facial appearance of CEO:s: Faces signal selection but not performance. PLoS ONE, 11(7). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0159950
Talley, L., & Temple, S. (2015). How leaders influence followers through the use of nonverbal communication. Leadership & Organizational Development Journal, 36(1), 69-80. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-07-2013-0107
Thoermer, C., & Sodian, B. (2001). Preverbal infants’ understanding of referential gestures. First Language, 21(63), 245–264 https://doi.org/10.1177/014272370102106303
Trichas, S., & Schyns, B. (2012). The face of leadership: Perceiving leaders from facial expression. The Leadership Quarterly, 23(3), 545-566. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.12.007
Viggiano, M. P., & Marzi, T. (2010). Context and social effects. E. Balcetis & G. D. Lassiter (Eds.), Social psychology of visual perception (pp. 171-200). New York, Hove: Psychology Press.
Zebrowitz, L. A., & Montepare, J. M. (2008). First impressions from facial appearance cues. N. Ambady & J. J. Skowronski (Eds.), First impressions (pp. 171-204). New York, London: The Guilford Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2017 Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
