Wide-faced men are better negotiators: Study

A new study has revealed that men with wider face are better at negotiating for themselves, however, not at compromising and collaborating.

The study found that having a wider face helps men when they negotiate for themselves but hurts them when they would negotiate in a situation that requires compromise. Additionally, men who were more attractive were better collaborators compared to less attractive men.

The paper describeed four negotiation simulations set up by the authors of the paper. In one, they found that men with wider faces negotiated a signing bonus of nearly 2,200 dollars more than men with a more narrow face. Similarly, in another scenario, they found that when men with wider faces were selling a chemical plant they negotiated a higher sale price than men with a more narrow face. When those same wide-faced men were in the buyer role they negotiated a lower price than the narrow-faced men.

In the third negotiating scenario, in which a creative solution was needed to bridge a gap on a real estate transaction, the researchers placed men in teams of two. They found that the teams with wider-faced men were less successful in the negotiation.

In the final scenario, research assistants were given a series of questions to access the attractiveness and beauty of the research subjects. Again, the men were paired off and given the same scenario in which they needed to come up with a creative solution to bridge a gap on a real estate transaction. The researchers found that the more attractive men were more successful in the negotiation.

The paper, 'Negotiating face-to-face: Men's facial structure predicts negotiation performance,' is published online in the journal The Leadership Quarterly.