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Babyfaces, Trait Inferences, and Company Evaluations in a Public Relations Crisis

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  • Gerald J. Gorn
  • Yuwei Jiang
  • Gita Venkataramani Johar

Abstract

We investigate the effects of babyfaceness on the trustworthiness and judgments of a company's chief executive officer in a public relations crisis. Experiment 1 demonstrates boundary conditions for the babyfaceness-honesty trait inference and its influence on company evaluations. Experiment 2 shows that trait inferences of honesty are drawn spontaneously but are corrected in the presence of situational evidence (a severe crisis) if cognitive resources are available. We demonstrate that these babyface-trait associations underlie evaluations by reversing the babyface effect on judgments in (a) experiment 3, where a priming task creates associations counter to the typical babyface-unintentional harm stereotype, and (b) experiment 4, which creates a situation where innocence is a liability. (c) 2008 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Suggested Citation

  • Gerald J. Gorn & Yuwei Jiang & Gita Venkataramani Johar, 2008. "Babyfaces, Trait Inferences, and Company Evaluations in a Public Relations Crisis," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(1), pages 36-49, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:35:y:2008:i:1:p:36-49
    DOI: 10.1086/529533
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    2. Duan, Yang & Hsieh, Tien-Shih & Wang, Ray R. & Wang, Zhihong, 2020. "Entrepreneurs' facial trustworthiness, gender, and crowdfunding success," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Lv, Xingyang & Liu, Yue & Luo, Jingjing & Liu, Yuqing & Li, Chunxiao, 2021. "Does a cute artificial intelligence assistant soften the blow? The impact of cuteness on customer tolerance of assistant service failure," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    4. Ahreum Maeng & Pankaj Aggarwal & Vicki MorwitzEditor & Zeynep Gürhan-CanlıAssociate Editor, 2018. "Facing Dominance: Anthropomorphism and the Effect of Product Face Ratio on Consumer Preference," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(5), pages 1104-1122.
    5. Samuel Stäbler & Prachi Gala, 2024. "Breaking the news: how does CEO media coverage influence consumer and investor evaluations?," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 617-634, December.
    6. Schoofs, Lieze & Claeys, An-Sofie, 2021. "Communicating sadness: The impact of emotional crisis communication on the organizational post-crisis reputation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 271-282.
    7. Septianto, Felix & Paramita, Widya, 2021. "Cute brand logo enhances favorable brand attitude: The moderating role of hope," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    8. Hyunju Shin & Riza Casidy & Alyssa Yoon & So-Hyang Yoon, 2016. "Brand trust and avoidance following brand crisis: A quasi-experiment on the effect of franchisor statements," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(5), pages 1-23, September.
    9. Joireman, Jeff & Grégoire, Yany & Devezer, Berna & Tripp, Thomas M., 2013. "When do customers offer firms a “second chance” following a double deviation? The impact of inferred firm motives on customer revenge and reconciliation," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 89(3), pages 315-337.
    10. Poutvaara, Panu & Jordahl, Henrik & Berggren, Niclas, 2009. "Faces of politicians: Babyfacedness predicts inferred competence but not electoral success," Munich Reprints in Economics 19800, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    11. Darren W Dahl & Eileen Fischer & Gita V Johar & Vicki G Morwitz, 2017. "Making Sense from (Apparent) Senselessness: The JCR Lens," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(4), pages 719-723.
    12. Liu, Xing (Stella) & Yi, Xiao (Shannon) & Wan, Lisa C., 2022. "Friendly or competent? The effects of perception of robot appearance and service context on usage intention," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    13. Tutun Mukherjee & Som Sankar Sen, 2022. "Impact of CEO attributes on corporate reputation, financial performance, and corporate sustainable growth: evidence from India," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-50, December.
    14. Mattarozzi, Katia & Colonnello, Valentina & De Gioia, Francesco & Todorov, Alexander, 2017. "I care, even after the first impression: Facial appearance-based evaluations in healthcare context," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 68-72.
    15. Li, Yi-Na & Li, Yan & Chen, Haipeng (Allan) & Wei, Jiuchang, 2023. "How verbal and non-verbal cues in a CEO apology for a corporate crisis affect a firm’s social disapproval," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    16. Das, Gopal, 2016. "Influence of salespersons' nonverbal communication cues on consumer shopping behaviour," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 199-206.
    17. Liu, Biqiang & Li, Yaoqi, 2022. "Teddy-bear effect in service recovery," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    18. Li Xiao & Min Ding, 2014. "Just the Faces: Exploring the Effects of Facial Features in Print Advertising," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(3), pages 338-352, May.
    19. Crijns, Hannelore & Claeys, An-Sofie & Cauberghe, Veroline & Hudders, Liselot, 2017. "Who says what during crises? A study about the interplay between gender similarity with the spokesperson and crisis response strategy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 143-151.
    20. Haiying Wei & Yaxuan Ran, 2019. "Male Versus Female: How the Gender of Apologizers Influences Consumer Forgiveness," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(2), pages 371-387, January.
    21. Septianto, Felix & Kwon, Junbum, 2022. "Too cute to be bad? Cute brand logo reduces consumer punishment following brand transgressions," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 1108-1126.
    22. Hsieh, Tien-Shih & Kim, Jeong-Bon & Wang, Ray R. & Wang, Zhihong, 2020. "Seeing is believing? Executives' facial trustworthiness, auditor tenure, and audit fees," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1).
    23. Canace, Thomas G. & Cianci, Anna M. & (Kelvin) Liu, Xiaotao & Tsakumis, George T., 2020. "Paid for looks when others are looking: CEO facial traits, compensation, and corporate visibility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 85-100.
    24. Agnihotri, Arpita & Bhattacharya, Saurabh & Vrontis, Demetris, 2024. "Can salespersons help firms overcome brand image crisis? Role of facial appearance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).

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