Redheads are more likely to become the CEO of their company because their flamed hair makes them more recognisable and memorable to their bosses, according to a recent study.
The news will be of some comfort to many ginger haired people who may have suffered bullying or discrimination in their lives.
The study by the University of Tennessee and Dalton State was a complex investigation into hair colour and perception. It revisited numerous other studies on physical traits, perception and success.
One of the main focuses of the study was the stereotype that blond haired people are more likely to be incompetent.
Although this stereotype is widely accepted to be untrue, it turns out that even though we know it’s not true, it still has an influence on our perceptions of people.
The point was that blond people are less likely to be recognised for their good work because they have a ‘warm’ and ‘likeable’ image with their superiors. Warm and likeable are traits attached to the groups of society people consider inferior to themselves. They are considered incompetent but likeable because people ‘like’ to feel they are superior to another group.
The same rule works in reverse for red haired people. According to the study, they have a ‘cold’ ‘unlikeable’ image, which is associated with success and ‘getting things done’.
Cold and unlikeable are traits associated with successful people. They are unlikeable because they are superior.
The study explained that red haired people fall into this group.
This means that a ginger haired person is more likely to stand out from the crowd in the minds of bosses. If a team of people all contributed equally to a job well done, a boss may associate that positive result with the ginger person in the team. Even to the point that they may think they did a doubly good job by carrying the ‘incompetent’ blond members on their team.
Therefore bosses have a positive perception of the ginger worker and are more likely to consider them for promotion when the time comes.
Good news for gingers trying to climb the corporate ladder then.
For the record, the study claimed that dark haired people had no positive or negative traits attached to them because they are the most common group in society.
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