Not so cute: How a 'babyface' may be getting in the way of your promotion

It's hard enough for the young to battle stereotypes about their generation. It's worse when employees look younger than their age.

- Ben Chester Cheong

A software engineer shared on Reddit how facial features can impact careers. Despite nine years of experience, they were labelled "junior" due to their youthful appearance, while a less experienced colleague with mature features was promoted ahead of them.

Appearances seem to matter at the workplace and the bias against "babyfaces" seems to affect professionals of all genders. Some Reddit users reported being excluded from professional events or addressed as "kids" despite their qualifications.

These anecdotes demonstrate how "mature" faces can get conflated with competence and authority in workplace assessments.

A 2023 study by the Harvard Business School found compelling empirical evidence that facial features influence career advancement.

Analysing 12,000 faces through machine learning, the researchers developed a "charisma score" that measures celebrity visual potential based on 11 specific facial features.

Their research concluded that "babyfacedness" negatively impacts perceived charisma, while features like high cheekbones, large eyes and facial symmetry positively correlate with perceptions of competence and authority.

The researchers validated their model by comparing LinkedIn profiles of executives and average employees, finding significantly higher charisma scores among those in leadership positions.

This supported their hypothesis that facial maturity matters in professional advancement, as their analysis found that "babyfacedness" negatively impacted charisma scores — suggesting that looking young may stand in the way of being perceived as leadership material.

As one of the researchers, Assistant Professor Shunyuan Zhang, notes: "An evaluator may not even be aware of how much someone's facial attributes are driving interpersonal judgments."

It highlights how unconscious these biases truly are, making them particularly difficult to address without specific intervention strategies.