Photo Courtesy of Charles Sykes/REX USA.
The only thing better than being a CEO of a Fortune 500 company is being a sexy CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
That's the theory being presented by University of Wisconsin economists Joseph Halford and Scott Hsu. In their new study, "Beauty is Wealth: CEO Appearance and Shareholder Value," Halford and Hsu analyzed the appearances of 677 corporate CEOs and determined that the most attractive executives were directly associated with positive stock returns from the first day that he or she was on the job.
To determine who's hot and who's not, Halford and Hsu used the "Facial Attractiveness Index," a widely used algorithm that measures facial geometrics. Basically, the more symmetrical your face is, the better looking you are. Some of the highest scoring CEOs include Yahoo's Marissa Mayer, Tesla's Elon Musk, and Paul Jacobs of Qualcomm. Mayer, for instance, scored an 8.45 out of 10 on the index. To put that into perspective, Angelina Jolie scored an 8.5.
According to the report, genetically gifted CEOs like Mayer and Musk usually equal higher stock returns because they're often more persuasive negotiators, and their successful television appearances help increase their company's public perception and profile.
Because attractive CEOs often breed better results, it means that they're usually compensated better as well. Rubert Murdoch, we're sure, disagrees. (Business Insider)