A strangely pervasive custom of odd poses and forced smiles

奇怪的姿勢和強顏歡笑，是一種奇怪而普遍的習(xí)俗

Do an image search for the word “business” or “manager”, and what comes back? Nothing that remotely resembles business or managers. It isn’t just that the people are attractive. It is what they are doing. Many stock photos feature well-dressed types sitting around a table. One of them is holding forth and everyone else is laughing madly, like cult members hearing that the Rapture has been brought forward a week.

用圖片搜索“商業(yè)”或“經(jīng)理”，你會得到什么? 與商業(yè)或經(jīng)理毫無相似之處。這并不是說這些人有吸引力。這就是他們正在做的事情。許多庫存照片都是穿著講究的人圍坐在桌子旁。其中一人滔滔不絕，其他人都在瘋狂地笑，就像邪教成員聽說被提提前了一個星期一樣。

In other pictures, a speaker is pointing at a pie chart. Her colleagues look astonished at what they are seeing. Or people are shaking hands, purposefully and often. If they are ever left to their own devices, they stand in front of floor-to-ceiling windows and gaze moodily at the skyline. What could they be thinking? Is it about what was on that pie chart?

在其他圖片中，一個說話者正指著一個餅狀圖。她的同事們對眼前的景象感到驚訝。或者人們經(jīng)常有目的地握手。如果讓他們自行其是，他們會站在落地窗前，憂郁地凝視著天際線。他們在想什么呢? 是因為餅狀圖上的內(nèi)容嗎?

Some amount of business life involves sitting around a table. Occasionally there is laughter. But if you wanted to represent the reality of a meeting, one person would be talking, two people would be listening and everyone else would be wearing the glazed expression of clerics who have just lost their faith. If there was an accurate stock photo of someone working at a desk, its surface would be covered in crumbs and the laptop screen would be showing its owner’s social-media account.

在一定程度上，商業(yè)生活涉及到圍坐在桌子旁。偶爾會有笑聲。但如果你想要表現(xiàn)會議的真實情況，一個人在說話，兩個人在聽，而其他所有人都帶著剛剛失去信仰的神職人員的呆滯表情。如果有一張在辦公桌前工作的人的精確照片，它的表面會被面包屑覆蓋，筆記本電腦的屏幕會顯示其主人的社交媒體賬戶。

The corporate headshot is the way that firms use photography to bend reality. But whereas stock photos tend to glamorise business, headshots achieve the reverse. They make corporate life seem less fun than it actually is.

企業(yè)大頭照是企業(yè)利用照片扭曲現(xiàn)實的一種方式。但是，盡管庫存照片往往會美化商業(yè)，但大頭照卻恰恰相反。他們讓公司生活看起來沒有實際那么有趣。

Most companies’ websites contain a gallery of their senior executives and boards, the product of hours of awkward primping and posing. Executives are caked in make-up and asked to look into the camera with a succession of forced smiles. The results are consistently appalling. Most end up looking like well-dressed hostages. Someone, usually the general counsel, looks so pained that he or she appears to have just been Tasered. One or two eschew smiles altogether: in this context they are the hostage-takers.

大多數(shù)公司的網(wǎng)站上都有他們高管和董事會的照片，這是他們花了好幾個小時尷尬地打扮和擺姿勢的結(jié)果。高管們化著濃妝，被要求對著鏡頭強顏歡笑。結(jié)果總是令人震驚。大多數(shù)人最后看起來都像穿著考究的“人質(zhì)”。有些人，通常是法律總顧問，看起來非常痛苦，就像剛剛被電擊了一樣。其中一兩個完全沒微笑 :在這種情況下，他們是劫持人質(zhì)的人。

The awkwardness is amplified if the photographer has decided to show more than a person’s head and shoulders. Pity the executives who have been forced to stand side on to the camera, tilt their heads slightly like a giant parrot, fold their arms and told to look natural. If you ever saw someone standing like this in real life, you would think “better cross to the other side”, not “I bet that person is great at creating shareholder value.”

如果攝影師決定不僅僅只展示一個人的頭和肩膀，這種尷尬就會被放大?？蓱z的高管們，他們被迫側(cè)身站在攝像機前，像一只巨大的鸚鵡一樣微微歪著頭，雙臂交叉，還被告知要看起來自然點。如果你在現(xiàn)實生活中看到有人像這樣站著，你會想“最好跨越到另一邊去”，而不是“我打賭那個人很擅長為股東創(chuàng)造價值”。

What on earth is going on? There is some research to suggest that profile photos can have a useful effect in commercial settings. Humans are quick to form judgments about others by looking at their faces: baby-faced people are regarded as more trustworthy than those who look older, for example, whereas more mature faces convey expertise. A recent paper from Stuart Barnes of King’s College London and Samuel Kirshner of the University of New South Wales looked at the impact of facial characteristics on the prices that Airbnb hosts can charge their guests. They found that hosts with attractive and trustworthy faces could charge up to 5% more per night than their peers for similar apartments. Unsurprisingly, perceived trustworthiness mattered more for small, shared accommodation.

究竟是怎么回事呢? 一些研究表明，個人資料照片在商業(yè)環(huán)境中可以發(fā)揮有用的作用。人們會很快通過看別人的臉來對他們做出判斷:例如，長著娃娃臉的人會被認為比看起來更老的人更值得信賴，而更成熟的臉則能傳達專業(yè)知識。倫敦國王學(xué)院的斯圖爾特·巴恩斯和新南威爾士大學(xué)的塞繆爾·科什納最近發(fā)表了一篇論文，研究了面部特征對Airbnb房東向客人收取價格的影響。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，擁有迷人且值得信賴的面孔的房東在租類似公寓時，每晚的收費可能比同行高出5%。不出所料，對于小型合租來說，可信賴度更重要。

But the decisions made by consumers on online marketplaces do not explain corporate headshots. Maybe some people try to choose between Disney+ and Netflix by going to the About Us section of their websites, but it seems unlikely. And even if executive profiles were somehow feeding into the subconscious decisions of investors and job applicants, it is not at all clear what type of photograph should follow. Managers will already be trying to convey an impossible brew of leadership qualities, from breezy confidence to naked vulnerability. Now they have to look baby-faced too? No wonder people end up gurning.

但消費者在網(wǎng)絡(luò)“市場”上做出的決定并不能解釋企業(yè)的大頭照。也許有些人會去他們網(wǎng)站的“關(guān)于我們”部分，試圖在Disney+和Netflix之間做出選擇，但這似乎不太可能。而且，即使高管簡介在某種程度上影響了投資者和求職者的潛意識決定，也完全不清楚應(yīng)該采用哪種類型的照片。經(jīng)理們已經(jīng)在試圖傳達一種不可能的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)品質(zhì)（從輕松的自信到赤裸裸的脆弱）?，F(xiàn)在他們也得有娃娃臉了? 難怪人們最終會被“變相”。

So what does lie behind this strangely pervasive custom? A headshot is something for a new executive to show their mother, and for a weary one to show recruiters. It is useful for employees who have no idea what their ultimate boss looks like. Leadership galleries increasingly serve as a crude but quick measure of diversity. Perhaps the most plausible explanation is that it is just something that everyone else does. It is odd to have a leadership team that does not show their faces. Odd but not impossible. Alphabet lists its board members’ names and eschews photos altogether. You just have to imagine them, shaking their heads in amazement at a graph.

那么，這種奇怪的普遍習(xí)俗背后隱藏著什么呢? 大頭照是新上任的高管給母親看的東西，也是疲憊的高管給招聘人員看的東西。對于那些不知道自己的終極老板長什么樣的員工來說，這是很有用的。領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層圖庫越來越多地成為衡量多樣性的一種粗略但快速的方法。也許最合理的解釋是，這只是其他人都會做的事情。有一個不露面的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)團隊是很奇怪的。奇怪但并非不可能。Alphabet列出了董事會成員的名字，并完全避免使用照片。你只需要想象一下，他們對著一張圖表驚訝地搖頭。