title: Moral Heroes Look Up and to the Right.
abstract: Portraits of moral heroes often portray the hero gazing up and to the viewer's right in part because ideologically minded followers select and propagate these images of their leaders. Study 1 found that the gaze direction of portraits of moral heroes (e.g., Martin Luther King, Jr.) tend to show the hero looking up-and-right more often than chance would predict, and more often than portraits of celebrities (e.g., Elvis Presley) do. In Studies 2 and 3, we asked participants to play the role of an ideologically motivated follower, and select an image of their leader to promote the cause. Participants preferentially selected the up-and-right version. In Study 4, we found that conceptual metaphors linking directionality to personal virtues of warmth, pride, and future-mindedness helped explain why the up-and-right posture looks most heroic. Followers play an active role in advancing social causes by portraying their leaders as moral heroes.
authors.affiliation: University of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada j.frimer@uwinnipeg.ca.
authors.forename: Jeremy A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Frimer
authors.affiliation: University of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sinclair
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005197:Famous Persons; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D012938:Social Perception; D028722:Virtues
keywords: conceptual metaphors; face perception; followers; impression formation; moral heroes