We examine the extent to which CEO facial characteristics matter in media coverage of firms implicated in corporate wrongdoing. We build on literature discussing that leaders’ faces may convey subjective behavioral expectations and that outsiders often over-rely on facial cues when making social judgments. We situate these insights in the context of corporate wrongdoing, where information incompleteness may be particularly high, potentially prompting outsiders to draw on CEO facial characteristics in forming their social judgments. Drawing on Expectancy Violations Theory, we hypothesize that firms led by CEOs expected to be more trustworthy, as inferred from their lower facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR), will draw greater attention and more negative opinions from the media in the wake of corporate wrongdoing. Results of an experiment (Study 1) where CEO fWHR was digitally manipulated support this counterintuitive logic, while findings based on an archival study of corporate wrongdoing of US firms from 2003 to 2016 (Study 2) partly generalize the rationale in the field setting. Our findings suggest that subjective expectations inferred from CEO faces may serve as part of a complex and underexamined source of variation in media coverage of misconducting firms. We discuss implications for theory and practice.

我们研究了 CEO 面部特征在涉及公司不法行为的公司的媒体报道中的影响程度。我们以文献为基础，讨论领导者的面孔可能传达主观行为期望，而局外人在做出社会判断时往往过度依赖面部暗示。我们将这些见解置于企业不当行为的背景下，其中信息的不完整性可能特别高，可能会促使局外人利用 CEO 的面部特征来形成他们的社会判断。根据预期违背理论，我们假设由 CEO 领导的公司预计会更值得信赖，正如他们较低的面部宽高比 (fWHR) 所推断的那样，在企业不当行为。CEO fWHR 被数字化操纵的实验（研究 1）的结果支持这种违反直觉的逻辑，而基于对 2003 年至 2016 年美国公司不法行为的档案研究的结果（研究 2）部分概括了现场设置的基本原理。我们的研究结果表明，从 CEO 的面孔推断出的主观期望可能是媒体对不当行为公司报道的复杂且未被充分检验的变化来源的一部分。我们讨论对理论和实践的影响。我们的研究结果表明，从 CEO 的面孔推断出的主观期望可能是媒体对不当行为公司报道的复杂且未被充分检验的变化来源的一部分。我们讨论对理论和实践的影响。我们的研究结果表明，从 CEO 的面孔推断出的主观期望可能是媒体对不当行为公司报道的复杂且未被充分检验的变化来源的一部分。我们讨论对理论和实践的影响。