Effect of Facial Hair on Retaining Professional Services
First impressions are lasting impressions, so when an individual seeks out a professional, i.e. an attorney, they have expectations of a higher standard from that individual. Every human being, has different ideas of what those "expectations" should be in a professional, so things like facial hair or baldness can have either a negative or a positive effect on someone. Much attention has been given to the importance of the image communicated to others based on personal appearance. Cognitive theorists suggest that clothing and appearance assist individuals in making inferences about others (Reed & Blunk, 1990). Many studies have been conducted on the way a bearded man is viewed in society and the studies have shown a positive attitude. Bearded men were perceived as more educated, intelligent, inquisitive, enthusiastic, sincere, generous, open minded, masculine, outgoing, extroverted and as having more status (Freedman, 1969; Kenny& Fletcher, 1973).
World Beard and Moustache Championship - Roland va...
English: Male facial hair
Facial Hair comicResearch (Reed, et al., 1990) shows that facial hair positively contributes to perception of social physical attractiveness. It is also revealed that men with facial hair are viewed more favorably than clean-shaven men.
Unlike facial hair on professional, baldness (in most cases) is uncontrollable. However, this to plays an important role in the attitudes and impressions humans have about one another. Like wine, wisdom is better with age and for some reason, we associate baldness with wisdom. Although male faces with less cranial hair appeared older, they also appeared more intelligent (Cash, 1990).
Research repeatedly shows that facial hair is a positive factor in an individual's appearance. Pellegrini (1973) performed an experiment in social perception in which women and men evaluated stimulus pictures of college men that varied systematically in level of facial hair, (full beard, goatee, mustache, mustache only, clean shaven). The more hair the more...