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As a tangentially-related follow-up to the below post on CEO Pay, I bet we could bring down prices and not substantially impede performance if we chose CEOs through casting calls rather than using secretive boards of directors:
When it comes to big business, appearances it seems, matter a lot. Companies tend to be more profitable if they have a chief executive with a face rated by observers as being more competent, dominant and mature.Similarly, companies with a chief executive judged to be a good leader, based purely on his facial appearance, also tend to be more profitable. These associations still hold even after controlling for the influence of age and attractiveness.As Nicholas Rule and Nalini Ambady, who conducted the research, point out: it isn't at all clear whether chief executives with a certain kind of appearance help their company towards profit, or if instead profitable companies choose to employ chief executives who look a certain wayVia Tyler Cowen.
