title: Up-and-left as a spatial cue of leadership.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: University of Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Paola
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Paladino
authors.affiliation: University of Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: Mara
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mazzurega
authors.affiliation: University of Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bonfiglioli
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006608:Hierarchy, Social; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D012938:Social Perception; D013028:Space Perception; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: spatial biases; symbols of leadership