Resting Hunt Face

 I am suspicious of the theories that explain modern human inefficiencies as evolutionary leftovers that no longer work.  It is not because I think they are mostly untrue - I think there are some very good ones out there.  But the explanation is so tidy and so congenial that I think it always brings a risk of being a Just-So story.

Having said that, I've got a fun one, by Jesse Bering Resting Hunt Face.  

Just look at the corporate world. Studies show that the selection of CEOs, along with those eye-watering salaries that companies are willing to offer them, vary as a function of the candidate’s facial appearance. It’s a powerful unconscious bias. It’s also just plain ineffective, as these automatic face judgments fail to predict actual profit-driven performance. That our species is so prone to making such costly errors, using faces to make rapid-fire but erroneous inferences about competence, is something of an evolutionary puzzle.

The idea is that we poorly evaluate modern leadership skills when we bring faces into the equation because we are very good at assessing hunting skills from faces, and consider that to be similar enough to sign on for that guy. 

We naturally think of ourselves, our families, and our friends when we hear such things. I do not hunt or even shoot myself, largely because I am so clumsy that it would be a waste of money and effort.  As I like to say, I would be more likely to take out the picture window or the refrigerator; if the neighborhood became so dangerous that I pretty much had to have a try at it, we're probably pretty much screwed already.  I don't know if coordination shows up in the face, but it is also true that I was always much better at being an advisor than a leader.  I never had any side hustles that brought home much money.

Four of my five sons have been shooters - one a hunter, two in the military, one at target ranges. Those are the four who also have side hustles besides their regular jobs. The hunter has the most side hustles, by far. He also has a slender 14 y/o daughter who can butcher a reindeer, though I can't say she looks much like a hunter.  Maybe that comes later.

So I have to think that "resting hunt face" could correlate with some job success, though maybe not CEO's or particular industries.