Stephenson, Amy Louise (2019) The Relationship between Babyfaceness and Competence in the Workplace. Masters thesis, York St John University.

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Abstract

Due to a lack of consensus in the literature, the present study aims to answer three questions: Is there a relationship between babyfaceness and perceptions of competence in a variety of jobs? Does babyfaceness influence the jobs in which individuals are perceived to be most suited? Does babyfaceness affect who will be hired for a particular role? Through gaining ratings of photographs of real people which were divided into high and low babyface categories, it was found that the answer to all questions in short is yes. Babyfaced men were perceived as significantly more suited to being carers than mature-faced men. Babyfaced males and females were significantly more likely to be ‘hired’ as scientists than the mature-faced, with the same being found for babyfaced male carers and the opposite for babyfaced female lawyers. Babyfaced males were rated as significantly more competent as carers, nurses and surgeons, while significantly less competent as police officers, doctors and CEOs than mature-faced males. Babyfaced females were rated as significantly more competent as carers and politicians, while significantly less competent as managers, teachers, doctors, CEOs, surgeons and fire fighters than mature-faced females. Findings are discussed in relation to the wider literature and limitations are identified which leads to providing suggestion for further study

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Status:	Published
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
School/Department:	School of Education, Language and Psychology
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/4819

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