Group Facial Width-to-Height Ratio Predicts Intergroup Negotiation Outcomes

People often have to make quick judgments about strangers based on very little information. The face, as a distinct cue for social communication, is particularly useful for inferring individual characteristics in interpersonal judgment and decision making. The ratio of the facial-to-height ratio (FWHR) is one cue that perceivers implicitly use to determine the extent to which men might be trustworthy, dominant, or aggressive.

To identify the potential impact of FWHR on intergroup negotiations, researchers randomly assigned 1,337 Chinese business executives from Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen to 288 groups and they completed a multi-issue negotiation exercise against each other. Results showed that both groups with larger average FWHRs and those with larger maximum individual FWHRs achieved objectively better negotiation outcomes. These findings suggest new strategies for negotiators to enhance their negotiation performance. Everything else equal, a new team member with larger, as opposed to smaller, FWHR would add more value to the team. Negotiators should also allocate appropriate attention and resources to handle negotiation counterparts with larger FWHRs.

These findings were published recently by Frontiers in Psychology in an article titled, “Group facial width-to-height ratio predicts intergroup negotiation outcomes.” Authors of the article included Professors Yu Yang of the School of Entrepreneurship and Management, ShanghaiTech University in China and Professor Thomas Denson of the School of Psychology, University of New South Wales in Australia. Professor Yang’s past and present research assistants also contributed to the article. This work was supported by a faculty research grant awarded to Professor Yang by ShanghaiTech University.

Read more at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00214/full

Figure: Example of measuring FWHR (To protect the identity of participants, researchers produced the present photo by merging three photos using Psychomorph.)