Premium
Up‐and‐left as a spatial cue of leadership
Author(s) -
Paladino Maria Paola,
Mazzurega Mara,
Bonfiglioli Claudia
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/bjso.12179
Subject(s) - psychology , social psychology , context (archaeology) , position (finance) , sign (mathematics) , spatial contextual awareness , artificial intelligence , mathematics , geography , computer science , mathematical analysis , archaeology , finance , economics
Cues of leadership are features that signal who is (or who is expected to be) the leader in a specific context. Although their use is widespread, empirical research is scarce, especially for spatial positioning as a sign of leadership. Based on work on spatial biases, we suggest here that the upper‐left corner of a page is a spatial position associated with leadership. In the present studies ( N = 455), we investigated this hypothesis and showed that a layout with a photograph positioned in the upper‐left corner (compared to the upper‐right, lower‐left, or lower‐right corner) led people to infer that the person portrayed in the photograph had a leading (vs. subordinate) role in the organization. Participants also thought that the upper‐left corner was the ideal spatial position to convey a leading (vs. subordinate) role in an organization. Implications of these results for symbols of leadership and spatial biases are discussed.