Physical attractiveness and leadership in team sport
Are attractive people more likely to be a leader?
ERASMUS SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS
Faculty:
Economics and Business
Section:
Marketing
Author:
Marc Hillers
Student id: 323524 MH
Supervisor: Prof. Drs. W.J.M.I. Verbeke
Thesis:
Master of Science
04-2012
Physical attractiveness and leadership in team sport
EUR, School of Economics, Marketing
Acknowledgement
It gives me a great pleasure to thank the many people who made the finalization of this thesis
possible.
First and foremost I offer my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Willem J.M.I. Verbeke ,
who has supported me throughout my thesis with his constructive comments and suggestions during
the compilation of this thesis. I thank him for the opportunity and support to research this topic for
the marketing department, since it is a quite progressive subject.
From the beginning to the end his guidance and encouragement provided me with the inspiration
and confidence to finalize this thesis.
Finally, I express my profound appreciation to my parents and family for their encouragement,
understanding, and patience during the years. Their support helped me enormously in achieving this
goal.
Sincerely,
M.A.T. Hillers
Erasmus University Rotterdam
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Summary
The main goal of this research was to find a relationship between physical attractiveness and
leadership in team sports.
The sport that was chosen for this research is Football. Football is the biggest and most influential
(team) sport on earth. Most important for my research is that a football team has such proportions
that it needs good leadership for optimal team performance.
As sample group 300 top football players from the 150 best teams of the UEFA team ranking were
chosen. These are the 150 best teams in Europe, which is the center of the world when it comes to
club football. From these 150 teams one regular player and the team captain were selected for this
research. The goal was to research if team captains are physically more attractive than regular
players. If this would be the result than this would imply that leadership is genetically defined.
The football players were analyzed on facial attractiveness based on the golden ratio. The faces of
each of the players were analyzed with software to determine how accurate they match the ideal
symmetric proportions. These proportions are considered the objective standard of beauty by
aesthetic professionals and doctors. Next to the physical attractiveness other statistics of the players
were researched. These included for example the age, length and field position of the player. Using
these statistics I tried to find correlations between leadership positions in the team and the players
(physical) features.
In the theory part I started with desk research on the role of physical attractiveness in our society
and described the modern definitions of physical beauty. Second I researched the role of sports in
our society. Because football is the sport of choice for this research, I devoted a paragraph to it
where I also explained the role of physical characteristics of the football players in the game.
After that I more thoroughly researched the relationship of the human bodies physical features, age
and length with sports and leadership.
The results from the facial analysis combined with the desk research led to the following conclusions:
This research found no relation between physical attractiveness and leadership. The main reason for
this can be found in the research approach.
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The results showed that top athletes are physically more attractive on average than the average
population. This by itself is an interesting finding, but was not the aim of this research.
The differences between the top athletes were too small for my sample size to find significant
differences between team captains and regular players, assuming there could be differences. For
significant results, groups with bigger contrasts should have been chosen.
This result supports the theory of Dr. Marquardt, who is a retired facial surgeon and now professor in
facial imaging at various Californian universities and has dedicated his life to define “mathematical
beauty”. His progressive research led to the making of the golden mask, which is a mathematical
model of a perfect symmetrical beautiful face.
Dr. Marquardt believes that athletes are predisposed to physical symmetry. In his vision it is this
symmetry which makes them good athletes, and results in so many athletes being attractive.
Leadership in football is not defined by the physical attractiveness of the footballer, but the age and
experience of the player are significant important factors. This research showed that the average age
of captains is almost 4 years higher than that of the regular players. At this top level of football the
average age of regular players in this sample is 26,5. This adds up to academic literature of Dr. Kalb
that implies that the human bodies physical peak is at 26 years. The captains in this sample are 30,5
years on average. According to Dr. Kalb’s research, they are over their physical top level. To be
precisely, their physical strength should have decreased somewhere around 2 percent. According to
Dr. Kalb, after the age of 25, people lose 4 percent of their muscle mass every decade.
An important conclusion of this research is that peak physical fitness is no direct significant indicator
for leadership in football. The average age of 30,5 of captains proves that the 4 year increase in
experience of the footballer weight more than the decrease in physical ability. It seems that
experience and maturity also in sports are an important factor when it comes to defining leadership.
Another finding of this research was that these top footballers are significantly taller than the
average population. They are even on average 3 centimeter taller than the average Dutch man, who
are considered to be the tallest of the world. This adds up to the theory that tall people are more
successful in many aspects. These other aspects are more thoroughly described in the theory part of
this research.
Also a significant relationship between the lengths of the players and the players positions was found.
The lengths of the footballers were declining from the back to the front of the field. The goalkeepers
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are the tallest with 187.6 centimeter on average and the strikers the smallest with 180 centimeter on
average.
Since this topic is quite progressive, there was not much academic literature about the relationship
between physical attractiveness and leadership. I hope this research adds up to the existing theory
and that these conclusions can contribute to future research.
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Table of contents
Page #
Acknowledgement
2
Summary
3
Table of contents
6
1. Introduction
8
1.1 Background
9
1.2 Problem Statement
11
1.3 Methodology of the Study
12
1.4 Scope and Limitations
17
1.4 Results and Implications
19
1.5 Structure of the thesis
20
2. Theory
2.1 Physical attractiveness in society
2.1.1 Definitions of physical beauty
23
2.1 .2 Perceptions of physical beauty through the ages
24
2.1 .3 Differences in beauty perceptions across cultures
26
2.2 Role of sports in society
2.2.1 Influence of sports
27
2.2.2 The power of Football
28
2.2.3 Physical characteristics and sports
30
2.3 Leadership and Physical characteristics
2.3.1. Leadership
31
2.3.2. Leadership in football
34
2.3.3. Physical characteristics and leadership
35
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3. Case study
3.1 Data
38
3.2 Method
39
3.3 Results
40
4. Discussion en Conclusion
4.1 Conclusions
46
4.2 Implications
51
4.3 Limitations
52
References
54
Appendix
1. The making of the marquardt mask
58
2. Top 3 highest and lowest ranked players
58
3. SPSS Outputs
59
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1. Introduction
The topic of this dissertation is the relationship of physical attractiveness and leadership in team
sport. Beauty has been mankind’s obsession for ages. In western culture, beautiful people are
treated like role models and are seen as the pursued standard for success(Dion et al). In this study I
will explain and use an objective measurement method for beauty based on the golden standard and
seek for correlations with evolutions social system that we as mankind conform to in daily life.
In communities of social animals, the so called alpha male is the individual with the highest rank.
Nature gave him the specific physical and mental features to be the fittest of the group. This fitness
not only means physical fitness but also the best adaptability to changes. The alpha males are first in
line to eat and mate and decide the groups actions. We humans are not very different, but through
social conditioning and humanitarian values we created a milder version of this concept of nature.
In our society political leaders decide what happens in the world. Through the ages their methods of
influence changed from a physical and violent to a more political approach and the role of opinion
leader. Nowadays we can find leaders in business, politics and sports. They all have the ability to
make others around them submissive and loyal. As one famous world leader once said:
Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do
it.
Dwight Eisenhower (US President 1953-1961)
Sport has been a part of human society since 2000 BC, when the Chinese practiced a sport now
known as gymnastics. Once sport was one of the ways of testing who was the fittest man, and
thereby the alpha male and most likely to survive. In ancient Greece, high profile athletes were
treated like gods. When the athlete returned home after victory, the city walls were destroyed by the
people, because they believed nobody could harm them with such a winner in their city.
There where nature in evolution only let the best of their species live and evolve, we as mankind
created a society where you don’t have to be the physical fittest and strongest anymore to survive.
Now (team) sports might be the closest to the physical way of hunting, fighting and establishing the
alpha male role in groups as we did through the ages to survive and evolve as mankind.
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Since we are social animals, we developed team sports, which also soon evolved in competitive
games. In team sports the official leader is the captain. He or she should, if you follow rules of nature,
be the fittest, smartest and best player. In practice we see that that rule not always applies. So how
strong is the way our society chooses leaders, still connected with our theory of evolution? Who is
picked as a leader, or who takes up the role as leader in situations where we come close to our true
nature?
In this research I will analyze team captains and random players of the same football teams on
different features. Football has been played since the ancient Greeks and now is the most popular
sport in the world. More important for my research is, that it is a team sport with 11 players (and
another team as reserves), with one common goal. A group of this amount requires a leader to step
up to achieve group success. Since I will be analyzing the best teams in Europe we can assume that all
players in the field and on the bench are top football players and this will not be the direct indicator
of leadership. In this research I hope to find a relationship between “nature given” or “god given”, as
some might prefer, physical characteristics of the player and leadership in sports.
With this research I hope to contribute to the already existing theory about leadership and physical
attractiveness. Especially to the literature about the relationship between both. This research will
provide more specific insights on the relationship of both subjects and the effect in team sports. This
specific field of research, in my opinion, is under exposed in current academic literature.
1.1 Background
In our society, beauty is a success defining variable. The perception of beauty is mostly formed by the
media and entertainment industry. Next to television programs where higher than average attractive
people are shown as role models, we are exposed to hundreds of commercial messages every day
which promote products that make you, or let you feel more attractive.
Success has many defining variables. Several studies have shown that there is a relationship between
physical attractiveness and success in life and business. A by society perceived attractive person for
example:
- gets a higher than average wage (Hameresh et al, 1994)
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- gets rated more positively at first impressions (Jackson et al, 1995)
- gets higher hiring recommendations (Gilmore et al, 1986)
- gets judged different by jurors in similar trials (Mazella &Feingold, 1994)
These are just a few examples of how physical attractiveness plays a role in our everyday society.
Sports are well integrated in our society. On average around 55% percent of people are active in
sports. Successful athletes are considered superstars, role models and opinion leaders. This is shown
by the following table where the top earning athletes are ranked.
Top 10 highest paid sportsmen in the world (total accumulated capital earned) according to
sportales.com:
1st
Tiger Woods
(32 years, U.S.)
2nd
Roger Federer
(29 years, Switzerland) Tennis
1.15 billion
3rd
Phil Mickelson
(40 years, U.S.)
Golf
1.1 billion
4th
Floyd Mayweather
(33 years old, U.S.)
Boxing
1.05 billion
5th
LeBron James
(25 years, U.S.)
Basketball
0.85 billion
6th
Lionel Messi
(23 years, Argentina)
Football
0.8 billion
7th
David Beckham
(35 years, England)
Football
0.75 billion
8th
C. Ronaldo
(25 years, Portugal)
Football
0.75 billion
9th
Manny Pacquiao
(31 years, Philippines) Boxing
0.7 billion
10 th
Alex Rodriguez
(35 years old, U.S.)
0.7 billion
Golf
Baseball
1.7 billion
It should be noted that the active (professional) career of a golfer is in most of the cases longer than
that of a footballer, boxer or tennis player. Adding up to that, golf, tennis and boxing are individual
sports which makes the achievements of those athletes even more spectacular. Team players, for
instance football and basketball players, earn most of their (advertising) incomes because of the fact
they are part of the club. Still clearly is shown that athletes are considered high valued in society and
also by commercial organizations who use them as role models.
Football Is the world’s most popular game by far and has the largest fan following. The sport
originated in China, where it was discovered by the English and is now the number one sport in 93
countries, home to 2 billion people. The FIFA (world football association) has 208 member nations
and now is a powerful institution both financially and politically. The sport is most popular and
booming in Europe. The English premier league and the Champions League are the most popular
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leagues with matches shown to half a billion people in 202 countries live. The FIFA World cup is the
most watched tournament in the world. The 2006 tournament had a cumulative television audience
of 26 billion people. The final was watched by 700 million viewers live.
In professional football the age of most of the players is between 18 and 34, but they are considered
at their top between the age of 26 and 30. This is when they have grown tactically in the sport and
they are at their physical top level. About the ideal length of players most experts agree that taller
than average players are in advantage. This is especially the case for goalkeepers and defenders
because they get a lot high balls in the game. Controversial is, that the now perceived best player in
the world; Lionel Messi is only 1.65 meters tall.
1.2 Problem Statement
My research is focused on the combination of the topics leadership and physical attractiveness. Both
subjects have been thoroughly explored separately, but current literature neglects the relationship
between both. Therefore I have formulated several research questions that will show if there are
correlations between features of physical characteristics of the players and successful leadership in
football.
Main research Question:
1.
Is there a relationship between the physical attractiveness of the footballer and his
leadership position in the team as team captain?
1.a.
Are physical attractive footballers more likely to be a team captain?
1.b.
Is there a relationship between the players length and his physical attractiveness?
1.c.
Is there a relationship between the physical attractiveness of the footballer and his age?
Secondary Research Question:
2.
Which other factors are of influence for being a team captain in football?
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2.a.
Is there a relationship between the players length and his position as team captain or regular
player?
2.b.
Is there a relationship between the age of the player and his position as team captain or
regular player?
2. c
Is there a relationship between the position in the field the footballer plays in and his length?
1.3 Methodology of the Study
As partially mentioned before, I have chosen football because it is the most practiced, viewed and
well known team sport there is. For this study I will use 300 football players for the test groups, of
which 150 will be team captains and 150 regular team players. I will select these captains and players
from the UEFA Team Ranking 2011, where the best clubs of the UEFA Football association are ranked
every year. So of every club in the top 150 of the UEFA ranking the team captain and a regular player
will be selected. I will use the UEFA Team Ranking because when it comes to club football, Europe is
the center of the football world and this list represents the best teams of Europe. This fact also
makes sure that it attracts the best players from all over the world.
Necessary data to collect for this study:
 Physical attractiveness of every player
 Captainship
 Age of the player
 Length of the player
 Field position of the player ( goal keeper/ defense/ midfield/ striker)
Other gathered data:
 Rank of the team on UEFA ranking where player is playing in
 Nationality of the player
 Football league the player is active in
Since I need to create large enough test groups for the field positions, I divided the ranking of the
random players in parts and made sure that there was a good balance in the data between the
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different field positions. I did this by selecting the random players by their player numbers
corresponding to the position in the field they play in.
Defining physical attractiveness
For these problem statements it is necessary to determine an objective measurement of physical
attractiveness for the selected footballers. I will do this by analyzing their faces to study their
symmetrical proportions by using the golden ratio. These (facial) proportions are widely perceived as
attractive by experts. First I’ll explain more about the Golden Ratio:
Golden ratio:
“In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of the
quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. The
golden ratio is an irrational mathematical constant, approximately 1.6180339887. Other names
frequently used for the golden ratio are the golden section (Latin: sectio aurea) and golden mean.
Other terms encountered include extreme and mean ratio, medial section, divine proportion, divine
section (Latin: sectio divina), golden proportion, golden cut, golden number, and mean of Phidias.”
The golden section is a line segment divided according to the golden
ratio: The total length a + b is to the length of the longer segment a as
the length of a is to the length of the shorter segment b.
The golden ratio has been a widely discussed topic for centuries. This because through research,
more and more examples are found where the golden ratio applies. Also in everyday life we are
confronted with the golden ratio. For example the common bank and credit cards have the golden
ratio. This phenomenon is also known as the golden section, golden number and the Fibonacci
sequence.
Golden Ratio in Architecture:
One of the findings was that the great pyramid of Giza (the oldest of the seven wonders of the
ancient world), which was build 2560 BC, in proportions is extremely close to the golden ratio. Also
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the famous Notre Dame which was build in the 12th century was
designed according to the golden ratio. In modern architecture the
golden ratio is used too. The CN Tower in Toronto, which is the tallest
tower and freestanding structure in the world, contains the golden ratio
in its design. The ratio of its total height of 553.33 meters to the height
of the observation deck at 342 meters is 1.618.
Notre dame with golden ratio lines
Golden Ratio in art:
The modern history of the golden ratio in arts starts with Luca Pacioli's book “De divina proportione”
written in 1509, which captured the imagination of artists, architects, scientists, and mystics with the
properties, mathematical and otherwise, of the golden ratio. There are claims that Leonardo da Vinci
used the Golden Ratio in his composition of the Mona Lisa, but there is no documentation to prove
this. However, Leonardo was a close personal friend of Luca Pacioli. Salvador Dali deliberately used
the Golden Ratio in his painting Sacrament of the Last Supper. He also incorporated in the painting a
huge dodecahedron over and around the supper table.
Golden Ratio in nature:
Adolf Zeising, who was a psychologist with main interests in mathematics and philosophy, found that
the golden ratio expressed the arrangement of branches along the stems of plants and of veins in
leaves. He also researched animals skeletons and the branching of their veins and nerves system, the
geometry of crystals and chemical compounds. In his research he saw the golden ratio operating as
an universal law. Also in the human body proportions the golden ratio applies. In connection with his
scheme for golden-ratio-based human body proportions, Zeising in his book wrote of an universal
law "in which is contained the ground-principle of all formative striving for beauty and completeness
in the realms of both nature and art, and which permeates, as a paramount spiritual ideal, all
structures, forms and proportions, whether cosmic or individual, organic or inorganic, acoustic or
optical; which finds its fullest realization, however, in the human form.”
Golden Ratio and physical attractiveness:
For ages mankind has tried to understand the phenomenon of beauty. This because beauty and ideal
psychical attributes have always been objects of desire. Interesting is that through the ages the
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perceptions of beauty have not changed that much. In ancient Egypt both men and women wore
make-up to emphasize their facial parts and important kings were portrait as manly and muscular.
Dr. Marquardt, who is a retired facial surgeon and now professor in facial imaging at various
Californian universities, has dedicated his life to define “mathematical beauty”. With his Marquardt
Beauty Analysis company he developed a facial model based on the golden ratio.
Since the complete Golden Facial Mask is constructed from a series of golden decagon matrices, and
the golden decagon matrices in turn are constructed from the golden elements, it becomes clear why
the golden elements are all present and can all be visualized in the golden facial mask.
This “golden mask”, as he named it, contains and
includes all of the one and two dimensional golden
elements formed from the golden ratio. This
shows how the ideal proportions of the face
should be considering the golden ratio. For the
steps of making the golden mask see appendix 1.
The Marquardt Mask
Mask applied to model
Researching it, Marquardt applied the facial golden mask to pre operative and after facial operation
photos. He scored each photograph on a 1 to 5 scale from the perspective of personal aesthetic
views. These scores were tested against the golden mask and the mask explained up to 75% of the
variance in attractiveness judgments, depending on the methodology used.
“The phi mask model (golden mask) supports averageness or prototypicality of the face as being the
major component of the facial attractiveness gestalt and is a first step in producing an objective
system for measuring facial attractiveness.”
American Society of Plastic Surgeons
Doctor Kim (Kim, 2007) reported that Marquardt’s mask is convenient for facial analytics. Other
researchers like Doctor Bashour (Bashour, 2006) claimed that Marquardt’s mask is a suitable tool for
developing an objective system to assess facial beauty.
Now that the measurement technique for facial attractiveness is defined, I selected a method to
index all athletes on a scale on how physically attractive they are. For this is will use software called
Beauty Rank. After manually loading and defining the proportions in the faces, the software
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calculates a score which indicates how “perfect” they match the golden ratio proportions. This
software analyses the proportions of the person and measures how perfect it fits the ideal
proportions of the golden ratio.
The software looks at different variables to compare them to the ideal proportions. Here are a few
examples:
 The width of both eyes
 The width of the bridge of the nose
 The length of the nose
 The length of the forehead
 The measurement from the outer corner of the eye to the middle of the nose
 The width of your entire smile
 The width of the jaw next to the mouth
 The length of the chin
These variables also relate to one another in different ways. For example in a “perfect face” the
width of the eyes to that of the mouth forms a Golden Ratio.
The software requires a frontal picture in good quality to define the facial proportions. Most athletes
are photographed every year for commercial purposes, so
pictures are widely available. Another advantage of the
software is that the pictures don’t have to be the same size,
because it is all about the relative proportions.
SPSS will be used to collect and analyze the data. Next to the
attractiveness of the athletes I will include age, length,
nationality, field position and the league he is active in, to see
if these variables show other correlations.
Screenshot of software with David Beckham
With this data I can answer my problem statement and research questions.
Dr. Marquardt has an interesting opinion on the relationship between physical attractiveness and top
athletes after analyzing top footballer David Backams face. His face almost fits perfectly in the golden
mask.
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“It would be of no surprise to Marquardt that David Beckham fits the Mask so well, as the doctor
feels that athletes are predisposed to physical symmetry. It is this symmetry which makes them good
athletes, and results in so many athletes being attractive”
1.4 Scope and Limitations
Scope
This research in its essence is about leadership and if physical features are of influence on the way
leaders are chosen in our society nowadays. The results will show if nature given characteristics
define leadership selection in sports or if there are other variables of influence.
In our society now the fittest compete in games, which have nothing to do anymore with survival of
themselves or their species. Still these top athletes are considered leaders in our society in many
ways. In team sports the leader and the way the leadership role is executed could mean the
difference between success and failure. That is why leaders in team sports are good examples when
it comes to the role of nature in leadership and this sample group is perfect for my problem
statement.
For this research the top teams from the UEFA ranking are analyzed to insure that the data is based
on the best players in the world. The UEFA represents the European Football clubs in the world and is
widely considered the most powerful continental football organization with the best teams in the
world as members.
Limitations marquardt mask
The marquardt mask is a wide discussed subject in medical journals and aesthetics . As quoted before,
some experts see it as a first step in making beauty measurement objective, other experts like E.
Holland (Holland, 2008), have objections on the way Marquardt created the mask.
Some of the “technical” commentary on the mask is for example:

Marquardt’s mask has a nose placement below the optimal preferences of white north
Americans
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
Marquardt’s mask is ill-suited for non-European populations

Marquardt’s mask lower jaw profile is not exactly like the optimal preferences

Marquardt’s mask has unusually long earlobes as a proportion of ear length

Marquardt’s mask has low-set eyebrows
These by some perceived “errors” in the mask are due the way Marquardt defined beauty. He used
fashion models as examples for socially perceived beauty. With these models faces conforming to
the structure of the mask, he concluded the golden mask was the geometric standard for beauty.
The choice for these examples is discussable, because beauty is subjective since it is a perception.
But for this, William Shakespeare , in his play “Love's Labours Lost”, had the expression: “Beauty is
bought by judgment of the eye”.
For aestheticians and plastic surgeons these subject are well worth discussing. For my research
however it is in a less way of concern. The Marquardt mask limitation does not concern the Beauty
Rank software. Marquardt’s mask is a good example of how the technique is applied in the medical
science and by plastic surgeons. I will just use the software to measure how “perfect” a face fits the
golden ratio.
Different facial characteristics of different races and age
Since different races have different facial characteristics it could be that some races genetically are
more close to the standards of the golden ratio than others. In this study I will analyze faces from 55
different nationalities. This could cause a minor difference in the scores, but that is inevitable when
choosing a standard of beauty.
Since all players approximately are between 18 and 35 the faces are presumably not aging in
proportions that it would influence the symmetry and scores significantly. The software is capable to
give reliable scores for different ages.
Other variables that influence leadership (in sports) and test results
For my research I will use the team captain as example for the team leader. In practice however
there is not a hundred percent guarantee that the captain is also the (real) leader of the team.
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In football the team captain is chosen by the coach. Since this is his subjective opinion it could be
possible that he has chosen a less better leader for the job due to personal reasons. Results of the
football matches though, have serious financial results for the players, clubs ,shareholders and cities.
Since football is a billion euro business we can assume that in most cases the player with best
leadership capabilities is chosen by the coach because this would give the best results. If not, this will
influence the results of the team and the coach, team captain and players could be replaced and this
‘problem’ will correct itself.
There will also be teams with more than one natural leader in it, but there can only be one official
team captain. This way it could happen that a “random picked player” also has leadership
characteristics and will end up in the sample of random players. This could alter the results if there is
a relationship between physical attractiveness and leadership.
Although the quality of the photos was good, the results would be even more precise if all pictures
would have been made from exactly the same distance and angle. Using photos of course has its
limitations. It would be even better if all players physical and facial proportions were measured in
real life. In practice however that would be almost impossible to arrange. Since the possible slight
deviation margin affects all test subjects, it will most likely not alter the results significantly.
1.5 Results and Implications
There are several studies about the influence of physical attractiveness in society, but none are
specific on relationship with leadership (in sports). This research has relevance in more ways. First of
all it contributes to the already existing theory about leadership and physical attractiveness. It
provides more specific insights on the relationship of both subjects on team sports.
Second of all it provides specific information about the influence of factors as age, physical length,
the field position and football league on the physical attractiveness and leadership. These topics are
all interesting enough to do more thorough research on in other academic departments than
marketing. If correlations are proven in my research this could form a base for further academic
research. It would also be interesting to see if there is a relationship between physical attractiveness
and professional athletes. This would add up to the theory of Dr. Marquardt that top athletes are
more physically attractive than regular persons. More thoroughly could be researched if this is the
same for all sports or only the more physical ones.
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If the relation between physical attractiveness and leadership in sports is proven, than theoretically
we could, by analyzing facial pictures of unknown teams, point out who has the highest chance of
being the leader of the group. Even though the outcome would not be “waterproof” and would have
many limitations, the implication would be revolutionary. This also would encourage more research
on other implications for the golden mask and golden proportions.
1.6 Structure of the thesis
First of all I will do more research on physical attractiveness in our society. In paragraph 2.1 I will
describe the modern definitions of physical beauty and the perceptions on beauty through the ages
and different cultures.
Second I will research the role of sports in our society in paragraph 2.2. Not only with numbers and
statistics, but also I will provide explanations, for why big organizations have a preference for sport
achievers and team players when it comes to job vacancies. Because football is the sport of choice
for this research, I devoted a paragraph to it. Here I will also explain the role of physical
characteristics of the football players in the game.
After that I will more thoroughly research the relationship of the human bodies physical features, age
and length with sports and leadership I paragraph 2.3. I will answer the question if leadership is born
or developed and research what the necessities are for successful leadership.
In the third paragraph I will present the method of the case study. Here the research process will be
explained more elaborate and I will show the data and the results that will answer my research
questions.
In the last part I will draw conclusions from the desk research and case study and will discuss the
implications and limitations of this research.
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Overview discussed questions and their placement in research
Main research Question:
1.
Is there a relationship between the physical attractiveness of the footballer and his leadership
position in the team as team captain?
Sub question
Physical attractiveness and ..
Explored through:
Discussed in:
1.a
Team captainship
Case Study
Section 3.3
1.b
Length of the player
Literature + Case study Section 2.3.2 & 3
1.c
Age of the player
Literature + Case study Section 2.3.1 & 3
Secondary Research Question:
2.
Which other factors are of influence for being a team captain in football?
Sub question
Factors of influence on captainship
Explored through:
Discussed in:
2.a
Length of player
Literature + Case study
Section 2.3.2 & 3
2.b
Age
Literature + Case study
Section 2.3.1 & 3
2.c
Field Position
Literature + Case study
Section 2.4.2 & 3
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2. Theory
In this chapter I will thoroughly research the three main topics of my research; physical
attractiveness, leadership and football. About all these topics separately, academic literature is
widely available. I will present the information that in a broader way is relevant to my research
topics and show how they can relate to each other.
I will start with what role physical attractiveness plays in our society and explain about perceptions
and definitions of beauty. Secondly I will report about the role of sports and specifically football and
will go in to deeper details of the game that are relevant for this research. Finally I will explain more
about leadership, leadership theories and the relation of leadership and the physical features of the
person.
2.1. Physical attractiveness in society
Physical attractiveness can be studied from a lot of perspectives. Here I will try to specify the subject
to the part that in a broader way is relevant for my research. Interesting views are the different and
common perceptions of beauty across cultures which I will further show in one of the next
paragraphs.
In our age beauty seems more important and present than ever. With the rise of technologies as tv,
digital pictures and the internet we made it possible to see and criticize more other peoples physical
appearances than ever.
Although TV personalities, actors and models we see in the media are mostly digitally altered to let
them look even more physically perfect, the average person in society sees them as role models for
beauty. This all day comparison feeds the peoples insecurity and need to improve their attractiveness,
because we are conditioned with the idea that attractiveness is a factor of success. As mentioned
before it is proven that attractive people have higher than average salaries, which is one of the
indicators of success in our society. This is one of the reasons why plastic surgery is so popular in
large parts of the world.
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“We've evolved from small tribes, where we would follow the tribal dictates," says Desmond Morris,
who is specialized in human and group behavior. "Now every young girl wants to be Britney Spears or
Beyoncé Knowles - they don't want to look like the girl at No17 anymore because these are the tribal
templates, and so you get homogenization and you have blond hair streaking and people trying to
look like Britney in Japan". Globalization and international media made the “tribes”, as Desmond
Morris called them larger and decreased the differences in perceptions of beauty. Instead of wanting
to look like the girl next door, in Asia now it is very common to see Asian girls striving for “western”
beauty features. I will exaggerate about this topic in the following chapters.
2.1.1 Definitions of physical beauty
Our perceptions of physical beauty are hardwired in our brain by nature to enhance the chance of
survival and reproduction.
The face is the main focus of attention when it comes to physical beauty, because it represents and
distincts the person’s identity the most to the general public. Studies show that even babies react
differently to attractive and unattractive faces. It is even proven that babies and infants prefer
physical attractive faces (Hoss & Langlois, 2003).
Several experts have researched this topic. Dr. Singh showed that people are able to gauge beauty at
a subliminal level, when they are shown pictures for a mere-hundred of a second. (Mckeen,2011)
“Evolution taught us to lust after symmetry - a nicely balanced body and face - because asymmetry
signals past illness or injury.”
Dr. Singh
Next to the common beauty features like facial symmetry there are differences between
characteristics of beauty for the different sexes. Here are a few examples of that:
Attractive male characteristics
Attractive female characteristics
Tall body
Full breasts
Broad shoulders
Full lips
V shaped torso
Low waist-hip ratio
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These by men perceived features of female beauty are all “programmed” in a man’s brain by nature,
because they indicate fertility and youth for women. Necessities for the man’s main purpose in his
live; reproduction. It is found that people with high symmetry are sexually active at an earlier age,
have more sex partners than average and have more one night stands. They are also more likely to
commit adultery (Etcoff, 2000).
The by women perceived attractive features are also programmed by nature. Men with these
features are more likely to guarantee children that will survive. First because of the protection of the
(strong) male for the woman and her offspring and second because of his DNA, which increases the
chance of children with these characteristics. A study showed that women at the peak of their
fertility had a strong preference for men with symmetric faces (Redford, 2005) when it came to
judging the attractiveness. They also prefer men to be at least 1.83 meters or taller (Buss, 2003).
Psychological Research at the university of Edinburgh showed that elderly men with symmetrical
faces correlate with long term mental performance. In other words; there is a link between the
physical condition (level of symmetry) and the mental decline. Dr. Lars Penke’s (Penke, 2009)
explanation for this was that facial symmetry may indicate a man has experienced fewer genetic and
environmental disturbances such as diseases, toxins, malnutrition or genetic mutations during his
development. This also advocates for the theory that nature hardwired humans to find symmetrical
faces attractive in search for the mate with the best chances of survival and mating.
2.1 .2 Perceptions of physical beauty through the ages
Our perceptions of physical beauty and attraction at first merely were formed by nature and its goal
to reproduce healthy offspring. Nowadays our society and social system deviated those perceptions
further away from the origin than ever.
Mankind has developed itself in a way that our physical state has become less relevant for survival. In
large parts of the world, people are living in a safe environment with food and commodities in
abundance. Next to that, we developed medicines to cure most of the deceases where an age ago
people would die, or be seriously ill from. This is one of the reasons why our human body is evolving
to the maximum of its capacity and potential, which for example results in people growing taller than
ever.
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Our society offers a safe place for most of people where they don’t have to worry about searching
food, hunting and fighting to survive. This led to changes in the perceptions of beauty and attraction.
For example, in western society, it is now perceived attractive to have a tan, while in large parts of
Asia, people try to bleach their skin(Li et al, 2009). Both don’t have a direct value for reproduction
or mating nature-wise, but are socially defined and conditioned. An interesting quote about our
perceptions of beauty:
“Perception is altered, and then a new prototype develops to become an acquired
taste. Thus Victoria Beckham, who has become an otherworldly creature - a twig
with torpedo breasts, a lip-glossed lollipop - would appear like a highly polished
anomaly in the Tesco (supermarket) car park, but looks halfway normal, or even
covetable, in Heat magazine.”
Joanna Briscoe
Mankind has many examples of where socially defined beauty is in controversy with nature’s
primary goals. Perceptions of beauty have not always been the same in history. In some cases, what
was considered as socially conditioned “beauty” at that time, was even counter evolutionary. The
used methods for pursuing these beauty standards had no evolution goal and were in fact damaging
women bodies to a point it seriously risked their lives.
For example in England high society women were forced to wear corsets to exaggerate the waist hip
ratio. This to a point where it damaged the internal organs of the women wearing it. This is one of
the good example of how conditioned views of beauty are in controversy with the perception of
beauty from reproductive standpoints. Also the now forbidden foot binding, that went on until the
early 1900’s in China is a good example of that.
Nowadays perceptions of beauty
With the introduction of television and movies, came the socially conditioned standards of beauty
which were influenced by the entertainment industry. Every year the entertainment industry points
out the most attractive male and female actors and they become the new standard of beauty.
Examples are Marilyn Monroe, Pamela Anderson and for the men Sean Connery and George Clooney.
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Beauty is only one variable when it comes to attractiveness. In our society things as money and
power are perceived to be attractive too. An interesting question however is, if the physical
appearance and features of the person, in one way or another, led to this power and money.
For example Hugh Hefner (the old founder of Playboy magazine, age 85), would according to rules of
nature not be the logic pick for attractive women. Though his money and power still seem to make
him attractive.
In a way we could see this as the evolution of our species. Where ages ago women selected men on
their physical fitness and with that the ability to produce healthy offspring and defend them, now the
factors of influence have changed. Physical fitness in our society has become a less defining factor for
the result. Now money and power are factors that can insure healthy offspring and a safe
environment, so that could be one of the explanations why women find that attractive.
2.1.3 Beauty perceptions across cultures
Within a given culture or social group people are likely to agree on the standards of physical beauty.
Across cultures they are more likely to disagree about some perceived features of beauty, but in
general what is considered attractive is shared by different cultures.
In cross cultural studies (Jones, 1995), it showed that youthful looking female faces were perceived
to be most attractive to men, while older looking faces were perceived less attractive. Interesting
was that the knowledge of the actual age did not affect the perceptions. Is seems men’s minds are
programmed to do the ‘fitness to reproduce-test’ pure visually.
Dr. Michael Cunningham from the University of Louisville did a lot of cross cultural studies
(Cunningham et al, 1995) on the perceptions of beauty across and within cultures. Under Asian,
white and Hispanic test groups he found out that neonate large eyes, a greater distance between the
eyes and small noses were perceived attractive. Asians seem to have a preference for younger
looking faces than the other test groups. His main conclusion was that there exists a large agreement
on the characteristics of an attractive face. This is probably partially the result of the influence of the
western entertainment industry.
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2.2 Role of sports in society
2.2.1 Influence of sports
When you look in history (competitive top-)sports have always been a way of selecting the fittest and
strongest. Sports trained and developed abilities that were necessities to successfully hunt, protect
and establish social status. Now sports are done mainly for fun and in some cases financial reasons,
but it still has its value in the social system and personal development. A study from Robert P.
Dobosz (Dobosz & Lee, 1999) at the Northeastern Illinois University showed that there is a
relationship between athletic participation and a student’s leadership ability. Sports are a tool to
define leaders and good leaders are necessary to achieve a groups maximum potential.
"The strength of the group is the strength of the leaders."
former NFL player & coach
-Vince Lombardi-
At the beginning of the twentieth century, schools provided sport opportunities as a means of
providing leisure time activities for children and youth. This because it has positive influence on the
child’s self-discipline, social abilities and physical health. Research showed there is a positive
relationship between being good in sports and interpersonal skills and peer acceptance. Involvement
in sport influences the total child, including their physical, social and emotional competence
(Messner, 2002). Development of these competencies contribute to the self-esteem of the child.
Now participation in organized sports has become a common part of childhood and is perceived as a
mandatory part of healthy child development. The “athletic elite” even competes for their schools
(and their schools reputations) in sometimes nationwide competitions and they are given
educational rewards and dispensations for other academic competences. In the United States it is
even common for high potential student athletes to get scholarships for university’s based on their
achievements in sports.
Not only schools have a preference for athletic performers. In the current job market, companies
have a preference for job appliers that are active in (preferably team-)sports. This because recruiters
assume it increases the chance that the person developed team-playing and possibly leadership skills.
It is also very common now that mayor business deals are made during sports like golf or at sporting
events.
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Like ourselves, we evolved sports during ages. Studies and programs to enhance human
performances with training techniques and artificial supplements are a billion dollar business. There
are many examples of the financial influence of sports on our society and economy. Enhancements in
techniques applied in motorsports a decade ago are now leading technologies in modern consumer
cars. These are now helping to create more fuel efficient and environment friendly cars. Another
example is the special fabrics and materials that were developed for sports and now are applied in
everyday products. Also medical science gained a lot of knowledge from testing top athletes. In a
way they are ‘super humans’ and the best product of our species, who maximized the potential of
the human body.
Top athletes are next to being considered the physical elite, also seen as thought leaders. Their
achievements on the field give them a hero-like status where a lot of companies try to make use of
by associating themselves with the athletes.
Sports are a billion dollar business and wherever there is money and power, there are always people
that try to get a (bigger) share of it. That is why sports are also used by world leaders for political
reasons . Since politics in a way is a popularity contest, political figures try to associate themselves
with athletes and/or sport events. Organizations like the Olympics and the FIFA , which officially are
sports organizations, have great influence on national and international politics and economies. Last
year’s (fraud case) bid for the next FIFA world championship proved how much influence this sport
event has on countries and what they are willing to do, to have a chance to organize it.
2.2.2 The power of Football
What to some is 22 people running after a ball, to others is their number one passion. Next to a game,
entertainment and a profession, football has become an important social, financial and economic
factor. In the year 2000 FIFA research showed that 250 million people played football regularly. That
is 1 in every 25 of the world population and means that football is by far, the most popular sport in
the world. This did not even include the massive amount of followers of the sport. The FIFA world
cup final of 2010 was watched by 700 million people live, which meant that almost 10 percent of the
total world population was watching 22 top athletes compete for the title.
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With so many fans, logically the football clubs and players represent a huge value. Here is a short list
of top 5 most valuable (in millions of US $) football clubs and players in the world:
Rank
Club
League
Value
Revenue
1
Manchester United
England
1864
428
2
Real Madrid
Spain
1451
537
3
Arsenal
England
1192
336
4
Bayern Munich
Germany
1,048
396
5
Barcelona
Spain
975
488
Rank
Player
Current Club
Net worth
Earnings 2011
1
David Beckam
LA Galaxy
219
40
2
Christiano Ronaldo
Real Madrid
160
38
3
Lionel Messi
Barcelona
110
32
4
Ricardo Kaka
AC Milan
100
25
5
Ronaldinho
Flamengo
90
24
Next to their (extreme) salaries, players earn a lot of money with sponsor contracts. Companies like
to associate their brands and products with successful players and clubs. Athletes provide a
successful testimony for a product or service, particularly when the product has contributed to their
performances. An interesting fact of this player top 5 is that they are all strikers and except for
Ronaldinho they all are or once were a team captain.
Governing bodies of football
The FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) is the world governing body of football
with 6 continental football federations. The UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) is the
biggest of all continental football federations. They are by far the most wealthy and influential at club
level football with 53 member associations. Virtually all top players of the world are active in a
membership country of the UEFA. Due its wealth and football dominance, it attracts the best players
of the world to play in Europe. This is why currently the top teams in the UEFA ranking are the same
as in the FIFA world club ranking. Most of the important management positions in these
organizations are occupied by ex top footballers.
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2.2.3 Physical characteristics and football
Age and experience in football
Most people would expect that the maximum age for men to play professional football has risen.
Where football players used to live like rock stars (included the body destructive lifestyle), now they
look more after themselves and sports medicine has come a long way since the magic cold sponge to
fix it all. The current trainers and performance monitoring force athletes to drive maximum capacity
out of their bodies.
The game of football also changed in such a way that top physical fitness is required even more
nowadays. In an average match players run an average of 11 kilometers and the pace of the game
increased with the lighter balls and perfect playing fields.
Though most players debut when they are around 18, on average they become regular players
around the age of 23. For defenders this is even at a later age. Young keepers in the first squad of
top level clubs are not common to see. Keepers are specialists in their part of the game of football
and experience is seen as mandatory to play for the top teams. Around the different football leagues
attacking players are in their peak between their 23rd and 31st and defense player between their 25th
and 31st. This seems to be comparable with other sports like Basketball, where the average age this
season was 26,77. For baseball and tennis this also was around the age of 26. According to dr. Kalb’s
research (Kalb, 1999), the muscle mass of men peaks at the age of 25 and after that it decreases
every decade with 4 percent till the age of 50. This peak includes the quickness, explosiveness and
power of the muscles that is necessary for most positions in the field. This also adds up to the theory
of the physical peak of athletes around their 26st year.
Physical characteristics and field position
Considering how the game of football is played different physical characteristics are preferred in the
players positions. Players who will get a lot of high balls like keepers and central positioned players
are preferred to be tall and wingers are preferred to be more explosive and have good running
stamina.
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Different field positions require different physical abilities to be successful. If for example the striker
of one team in a straight run is faster than the defender of the other team, it doesn’t mean the
defender will lose every duel. Due experience, run vision, extremely developed eye-body
coordination and good ball handling the defender can compensate the lack of running speed.
Researchers in Iceland (Arnason et al, 2004) tested 300 players of the two highest divisions of
Iceland’s football league. Their aim was to study the relationship between physical fitness and team
performance by comparing various indices of physical fitness between and within divisions with final
league standing.
When making comparisons between different player positions it showed that goalkeepers were
significantly taller and heavier than regular field players. Goalkeepers also have a greater range of
movement in the hips, greater leg extensor power and less injuries, but their peak oxygen uptake
was lower than that of field players. One of their conclusions was that goal keepers are part of the
football team, but in most other ways are different from field players.
2.3 Leadership and physical characteristics
2.3.1. Leadership
Leadership is a product of nature. It maximizes the species potential by letting the fittest, smartest
and strongest lead the group. In their book Mark van Vught and Anjana Ahuja present evidence of
leadership in nonhuman animals groups. Their findings are that leadership has a long evolutionary
history and that the same leadership mechanisms of humans can be found in other social species.
Though only humans and chimpanzees share a similar tendency for violence, territoriality and
competition for uniting behind the leader (Wrangham & Peterson, 1996).
Born or learned leadership
So is a leader born or made? This is probably the most asked question about leadership. The best
answer would be ‘mostly made’.
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In a very interesting study (Arvey et al, 2006), researchers used identical twins as test subjects. These
twins have the same ‘born genetics’ and that makes them perfect to test the influence of parenting
and experience on leadership skills development. Testing the different personalities of the twins it
showed that extraversion is consistently associated with leadership positions and effectiveness. Also
characteristics like being bold, assertive and risk taking help defining leaders. Their conclusion was
that modest rule breaking behavior positively predicted the number of leadership roles taking on by
the test subject. Those with a higher amount of rule breaking had significantly less leadership roles.
This could be explained by the emphatic skills of ‘feeling’ boundaries of what is allowed or not. Test
subjects who have a higher level of empathic skill are more likely to ‘feel’ the boundaries and know
when they deliberately break them.
Empathy is just one of the many skills a leader should have. Intelligence is a basic necessity for a
leader, but mastering empathic skills, social intelligence and the understanding of social structures is
what determines great leaders.
In a way leaders are marketers of their own personal brand:
"The leader must be able to know what followers want, when they want it, and what prevents them
from getting what they want."
founding director of the Center for Leadership Studies at Binghamton -Bernard Bass-
Leadership theories
The trait theory of leadership, which was commonly accepted in the 19th century, had the
assumption that leadership is rooted in the characteristics of the individual. In other words;
leadership skills are born. In those days leadership and power was most of the time inherited in
families and the social and economic differences were very large. This made It hard to ‘enter’ the
elite and aristocrat society. The income and social differences have aligned more over time and now
in western society ‘the American dream’ is the denomination of the possibility to achieve the highest
possible, regardless what your background is both socially and economically.
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Around the 1950’s the views on leadership changed drastically. Where before was believed that
leaders were born and fit for every situation, the situational theory assumed that every situation calls
for different characteristics of a leader. In this theory there is no optimal profile for a leader.
After that came the functional leadership model (Hackman & Walton, 1986). This theory sees the
leader as someone who takes care of whatever is necessary for the group and what contributes to
the effectiveness of the group.
In research on functional leadership, researchers (Kowsloski et al, 1996) identified the 5 broad
functions when maximizing the organizations effectiveness as environmental monitoring, organizing
subordinate activities, teaching and coaching subordinates, motivating others, and intervening
actively in the group's work.
Even more recent research of Bass (Bass, 2008) shows that there are human characteristics that
distinguish leaders from non leaders. A few relevant of these are positive differences in intelligence,
dominance, adaptability, persistence, integrity and self-confidence.
In the democratic and social system we created as mankind now it is important to be liked as leader,
because this will keep you in power. In contrary, history shows dictators, kings and violent rulers that
made sure they were feared by both enemies and servants at all costs. Unfortunately in some
countries governments still use these repelling ways of staying in power. Even in organizations and
companies now, the basic idea of this model is used and known as ‘management by fear’.
In many ways our society stimulates children to develop social, competitive and leadership skills from
a young age. This because it is widely accepted that these skills contribute to a successful
development of the child and his future career. In a study of Dr. Dhuey (Dhuey & Lipscomb, 2008),
she found a significant adult wage premium attached to high school leadership activity. This shows
that “young active leaders” are likely to be more successful in their future careers. This is probably
why top companies have a preference for employees with those extracurricular activities on their CV.
The study also showed that the relatively oldest students are 4 to 11 percent more likely to be high
school leaders. Age and maturity seem to be a significant factor in leadership when you look at
different examples in companies, governments and sport teams.
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Leadership styles
Leadership has become more complex than ever with the increasing amount of stakeholders and
competition. Leaders should adapt their leadership style to the situation to be successful. Qualities
like adaptability and empathic intelligence are key to use the most effective style in the situation.
There are a few leadership styles that are commonly recognized now (van Wormer et al, 2007) and
they all have their applicable situations in politics, business and sports. The democratic leadership
style, that politicians and leaders that are dependent of their followers use, is adequate in creating
approval. The authoritarian leadership style is adequate in periods of crisis and unpopular decisions,
but fails to win the hearts and minds of the followers. Finally the laissez-faire style is known as the
“hands-off” style, where the leader provides little or no direction. Disadvantage of this is that if it
goes wrong, the leader will perceived not to have taken charge, which is the main purpose of a
leader. In Football, the democratic leadership style is applied by the team captain. The captain needs
the support of his team to achieve success and keep his leadership position in the team.
2.3.2 Leadership in football
Adding up the findings of the previous mentioned researches, a team captain is likely to play a
position in the center of the field and should be around 26 years old .
Another assumable competence of a leader is professional skill. The leader of a team does not have
to be the absolute best player in football skills, but cannot be underperforming compared to the
group.
Dr. Yukelson did research (Yukelson et al, 1983) on interpersonal attraction and leadership within
sport teams. He and his team of researchers examined characteristics of collegiate athletes who
were rated high as leaders compared to those who were rated lower in leadership by teammates.
Results showed that athletes scoring high leadership status, as rated by their teammates, tended to
be better performers, had more seniority on their team and had a greater internal locus of control
than teammates with lower leadership status.
A research team from the university of Brighton (Lee et al, 1983) did a study on field positions of
players and team captains. He found that central playing footballers were more likely to be team
captains since their positions require high interactions with the other players.
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The results showed that for professional football teams, captains were more likely to occupy the
center back position, whereas in amateur/school teams, captains were more likely to be center backs
or midfielders. His conclusion was that regardless the level of competition the team captains were
more likely to play central positions.
2.3.3. Physical characteristics and leadership
Age
In this case of football maturity in the game seems to be an important factor for team leadership. It
might not be the age itself which is the most determining factor, but the experience that is gained
during those years. Logically the chance of more (leadership relevant) experience increases with the
age of the person, but the ability to learn from these experiences defines the degree of success in
leadership.
The physical peak of our human bodies is around the 26th year, but most world leaders are more
likely to be twice that age. This shows how we evolved as mankind and redefined nature’s way of
leader selection. We created a system where physical fitness and leadership have declining
correlation.
In a group of non human animals the physically most fittest challenges the leader for his position.
With the gaining influence of the experience variable, the selection process for leadership has
changed dramatically. Physically “fit enough to lead”, competence and significant experience
nowadays seems the winning combination. Of course in fields like top sports, the physical part is
more important than in regular society. Though leadership battles now are fought mostly with brains
(experience) instead of biceps.
Leaders age and age-related influences unfortunately are neglected topics in leadership research.
Still there was some interesting literature with correlation to my study.
In a research on the effect of age of the leader on political performance of British monarchs, D.
Simonton (Simontonl, 1998) found that age predicted performance indicators like legislative activity
and enforced reforms. Other research (Oshagbemi, 2004) compared leadership styles of older and
younger managers. Older managers seem to consult more widely and favor more participation of
their followers, while younger managers are more authoritarian. Possibly this can be explained by
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the pressure young leaders feel to show they’re in charge. While the older mangers have the self
confidence and experience of being inviolable as leader.
Physical length
Height is a desirable attribute in almost every culture. In human history leadership qualities were
ascribed to taller people, because they were believed to be more capable protecting the tribe. This is
an evolutionary throwback to times where conflicts were resolved with violence. Though even after
ages of evolution, this same believe remains. Dr. Mair Underwood’s, who is an anthropologist from
Queensland University stated that tall people are perceived to be stronger, more influential,
confident, persuasive, impressive and capable leaders.
The question is, if this is a self fulfilling prophecy or that tall people indeed genetically are more
capable to be a leader. Are tall people perceived competent for being a leader because of their
length and learn to behave like one, or do tall people have other physical abilities next to their length
which makes them more suitable for leadership?
Physical length, like a symmetric face, is an indicator of healthy growth and also with non-human
animals research shows that there is a relationship between bigger physical size and higher social
ranks within groups.
Not only perceptions are in favor of tall people, also on the paycheck tall people are in advantage. In
a research (Cable & Daniel, 2004) from the Journal of applied psychology it showed that tall people
can earn up to $789 more a year, just because of their length. This even was the case for jobs like
accountants where the height of the person had no direct influence on the work they practiced. In
jobs like sales and management, tall people on average have a higher performance and hence
earning capability, because people view them with an advantage in perception.
Also in US presidential elections the taller candidate has a statistical advantage. In his study ‘the
presidential height index’, Dr. Greg Murray found that in 58% of the US elections between 1789 and
2008 the taller of the two candidates won.
In another research of Dr. Murray (Murray, 2011) , who is an expert in political science, he asked 467
students to describe and draw their ‘ideal nation leaders’ alongside a normal citizen. In almost 2/3rd
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of the cases the participants drew
the leaders taller. This difference
was about 12 percent and results
were the same across the different
cultures of the participants.
US president Obama is the tallest and leader of the most powerful nation. Coincidence?
In his book Blink, of the writer Malcolm, he researched the height of Fortune 500 companies CEO’s.
What he found was very interesting and supports the previous referred theory about tall men and
leadership. The average CEO was 183 centimeters, which is almost 8 centimeters taller than the
average American. In the general population only 3,9 percent are 189 centimeter or taller. In the CEO
test group this was 30 percent, which is almost 8 times the average. Even compared to the average
of the tallest population of the world; the Netherlands, the CEO’s are 3 centimeters taller on average.
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3. Case study
In this chapter I present the main part of my research. Gathering player data and analyzing the faces
was a time consuming practice, because it needed to be done with extreme precision to get reliable
results. I will present how I gathered and created the data and how I sorted it to be ready to be
analyzed in SPSS. After that I will show the results and apply them to the research questions.
3.1 Data
For this study I selected 300 players of the top 150 UEFA ranked football clubs of Europe. This means
that the test groups have 150 team captains and 150 regular players. All players have player numbers
that indicate that they are regular players in the first squad and have been selected in a way that
every field position has enough represented samples.
The necessary player data for this research are :
 Name of Team/Club the player plays for
 Captain or regular player. Which I coded 1 for captain, 0 for player
 Rank of team on UEFA ranking
 Attractive index (0-100) as calculated in the software
 Beauty, which is the absolute deviation from the perfect symmetric face. (0 =low, 500= high)
 Age in years
 Length in centimeters
 Nationality, which I coded 1 to 55 representing all different nationalities
 Football league, which I coded 1 to 55 for all different leagues players are active in
 Field position, which I coded 1 for goal keeper, 2 for defender, 3 for midfielder, 4 for striker
Example of the data file :
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3.2 Method
Through desk research all data of the players could be found except the attractiveness. This data I
needed to create myself. Using image databases I searched for player photos with the special
requirements that the software demands.
Face Beauty Rank is software that is specifically designed to measure and quantify beauty using the
golden section. This method, as explained before is a by aesthetic specialists accepted measurement
system for beauty.
Since the software measures the face proportions after manually selecting them, the picture should
be in frontal position to measure symmetric proportions.
Next to that, obviously the picture should be sharp enough (good resolution) to see the boundaries
of the facial features. Also the players face should have little or no expression which would alter the
shape of the face and facial features that need to be measured.
The software that is used puts the players picture full screen, after which manually the following
geometric proportions should be selected with markers:

Distance between eyes/Nose width;

Head height /Face height

Face height/(Face height – Chin height)

(Face height – Chin height)/Mouth width

Face width in the mouth area/Nose length

Head height/Face width within the eye area

Face width in the eye area/(Face height – Chin height)

Face height/Forehead height
screenshot from Face Beauty Rank software
With these measurements the software can calculate the so called beauty rank and beauty rank
index.
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As quoted from the developers of Beauty Rank software:
"Beauty" is the value of Deviation from Ideal Beauty. The values of this "deviation" may vary from 0
to 500. Beauty that equals to zero is Ideal Beauty. The closer the Beauty value to zero is, the more
beautiful the face is. This face has small deviation from perfection.
The beauty rank is the value that I will use for the tests. The beauty index score is influenced by all
previously done facial analysis and will give relative outcomes compared to all previous tests ever
done by the software instead of only my sample group. This index score could be interesting to
compare the athletes with the “average population”.
If there is statistical evidence to support my research question or not, it is very interesting to see
results from the facial analysis. So do we find faces closest to the ideal golden section really more
beautiful than those least correlating to that? Now you can judge yourself. In Appendix 2 I made a
top three of pictures with the highest and lowest ranked players according to the Beauty Rank Index.
A quick look at the characteristics of these lists of players shows no direct indications that age or
captainship with being beautiful geometrically. Off course more thorough analysis will be done in the
next paragraph.
3.3 Results
This part will provide answers to all previously stated research questions of this dissertation. Using
statistical software SPSS, all 300 players and their data were analyzed.
Before answering the main research questions of this dissertation, the collected data allows to
answer another question that is very interesting. Are top athletes more attractive than average
persons?
While analyzing the faces with the Beauty Rank software, the software also calculated a Beauty Rank
Index (named Physical Attractiveness Index in data) next to the “Beauty” value as stated before. The
Beauty Rank Index compares the absolute beauty score of the face to the average of all the faces
that were previously tested with the software. According to the maker of the software it has been
downloaded more than 100.000 times. This makes it assumable that enough data has been analyzed
to create a database and index that represents an average population. Regrettably no other statistics
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available about the persons who’s faces have been analyzed. This would have made more significant
conclusions and comparisons between groups possible.
As quoted descriptions by the software developers about the Beauty Rank Index variable:
“Beauty Rank is the ratio of the Beauty to the maximum value of deviation from Ideal Beauty (it is
equal to the Beauty of the ugliest face) that is multiplied by 100%. It is the representation of Beauty
in percent. The maximum value of deviation is calculated mathematically according to the
distribution curve for people whose deviation from ideal beauty varies within a wide range.
The Beauty Rank equal to 100% means ideal beauty. Otherwise the value of 0% means being ideally
unbeautiful.”
“The more different people are included in this sample, the closer our curve will be to the actual
regularity. Anyone can be beautiful in one group of people and completely ugly in another group of
people. That's the problem with calculating the Beauty Rank Index and it means that it is a relative
value. If you calculate the Beauty Rank Index, you must specify the group of people it was calculated
for and then you can say for sure what position on the beauty scale you occupy in this group if you
have that particular Beauty Rank Index. At the same time, we can calculate the absolute value of the
Beauty Rank for the entire population of people if we find ideally ugly people.”
According to the software a person with a BRI of 50% has a perfect average face compared to all the
previously analyzed faces. Here are the Beauty Rank (index) results of the facial analysis of the top
footballers.
One-Sample Statistics
N
Physical Attractiveness Index
Mean
300
80,0757
Std. Deviation
15,34987
Std. Error Mean
,88623
The results show an average Beauty Rank index of 80,08. This means that on average 80,08 percent
of all the analyzed people have a less attractive face than an average top footballer from my sample
group and 19,92 have a more attractive face.
Of course this is a major topic and should be researched more thoroughly. To test this statement
with significance, the group of “average persons” should be picked more carefully. Hence this
significantly higher average is very interesting and supports the previous mentioned statement of Dr.
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Marquardt about athletes being predisposed to physical symmetry. This finding does encourage
further academic research on this topic.
For the following research questions of my dissertation the “beauty” value is used. This because it is
an absolute measured value that is not compared with the previous analyzed faces like the BRI. See
Appendix 3 for the SPSS Outputs of the research questions.
Research Questions:
1.a. Are physical attractive footballers more likely to be a team captain?
I will compare the means of the total sample population and analyze the differences between the
two groups as a whole.
The two sample sizes (150 captains and 150 regular players) are the same and it can be assumed that
the two distributions have the same variance. This supports the use of the Independent Samples Ttest. See Appendix 3.1. for the tables.
Levene’s test is not significant (0.475> 0,05). This means we can assume equal variances. The mean
shows that captains have an average beauty rank of 62,93, which is lower than the 65,03 of regular
players. This means that captains in this sample are more attractive than the regular players.
With 0,715 significance (2-tailed) > 0,05, there is no evidence that the higher physical attractiveness
of the captain is statistically significant.
This test does not support the statement that physical attractive footballers are more likely to be a
team captain.
1.b. Is there a relationship between the players length and his physical attractiveness?
For researching correlations between the length of the players and their physical attractiveness the
Pearson Correlation Coefficient is used. Also a group statistic is shown to present the differences
between the both groups more clearly in Appendix 3.2.
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The mean of all the players lengths of this sample is 182,88 centimeter and the mean Beauty Rank is
63,98. In contrary to what would be expected after the academic literature about the relationship
between leadership and body length, the regular players in this sample are taller. This with an
average length of 183,37 centimeter of regular players versus 182,39 centimeter of the team
captains. The Pearson correlation results shows a significance of 0,51>0,05, which means there is no
statistical correlation between the beauty rank and length of the players.
The average length of regular players in this test is almost 1 cm taller than that of team captains, but
this research shows no statistical evidence that this is significant.
1.c. Is there a relationship between the physical attractiveness of the footballer and his age?
For researching correlations between the physical attractiveness of the players and their age the
Pearson Correlation Coefficient is used. See appendix 3.5 for the SPSS outputs.
The average age of the football players is 28,60, which is about 2.5 years over their physical top level
according to academic literature that I presented before. The average beauty rank of the sample
group footballers is 63.98. The results show there is no correlation between the beauty rank of the
player and his age with a significance of 0,33>0,05
This research shows no relationship between the physical attractiveness of the footballer and his age.
2.a. Is there a relationship between the players length and his position as team captain or regular
player?
This research question will be answered in two ways. First of with an independent sample t-test and
secondly with a correlations test. The outputs of the independent samples test that compares the
lengths of all players and captains can be found in appendix 3.7.
The Levene’s test shows no significance with 0.5520> 0,05. This means we can assume equal
variances. In contrary with what would be expected after researching theory about leadership and
length, the regular players are taller on average than the team captains. The average length of the
regular players is 183,37 centimeter and that of captains 182.39 centimeter.
Though, with a significance of 0,158>0,05, there is no evidence that the higher mean of length of the
regular players is statistically significant.
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The Point-Biserial correlation shows the same results. The Pearson correlation is -,082. This means
that if you add the variable that a player is a team captain, his average length lowers with 0,082 cm.
Though with 0,158>0,05 this is not statistically significant.
This research shows no statistical significant relationship between the players length and his position
as team captain or regular player.
2.b. Is there a relationship between the age of the player and his position as team captain or
regular player?
For this research the Point-Biserial correlation will be used. This measurement technique is
appropriate when there is 1 interval variable which is the players age and 1 nominal variable with 2
levels. In this case those two levels are captain and regular player. See appendix 3.8 for SPSS outputs.
The average difference in age between a team captain and regular player is 3,85 year, with the
captain being the older one with 30,5 years.
The Point-Biserial correlation shows a correlation of .428 between age and captainship with a
significance of 0.00. This means that when the player is a team captain instead of a regular player, his
average age rises with 0.428. With a statistical significance of 0,00<0,05 this is also statistically
significant.
This research shows that there is a statistical significant relationship between the age of the player
and him being a captain of the football team.
2.c. Is there a relationship between the position on the field the footballer plays in and length?
For this analysis the ANOVA model is used because the means of 4 groups (goal keepers, defenders,
midfielders and strikers) are tested and there is one independent variable namely length. This
method needs the following assumptions to be met in order to get reliable results:
 Observations are independent.
 The sample data have a normal distribution.
 Scores in different groups have homogeneous variances.
All assumptions have been met for ANOVA. See appendix 3.9 for SPSS outputs.
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The table and graph show a clear decreasing
line in average lengths from the back to the
front of the field positions. The goal keepers
on average are the tallest with 187,6
centimeter and the strikers on average the
smallest of the sample group with 180,3
centimeter. The difference in averages is
around 7,3 centimeter, which is quite a lot.
Average lengths from players in different field positions
With a significance of 0,00<0,05, there is a statistical significant relationship between the lengths and
field positions of the players.
This research shows that there is a statistical significant relationship between the length of the player
and the position on the field he plays in.
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4. Discussion and Conclusions
This is the final chapter of this dissertation. In this chapter firstly I will discuss the results of the
research and provide conclusions for the research questions. Second I will discuss the implications
and findings of this research and the opportunities for further academic research. Finally I will discuss
the limitations of these conclusions and implications
4.1 Conclusions
One of the main findings of this research was not one that came directly out of a research question.
The software that was used provided an opportunity to compare the beauty rank with a random test
group. The Beauty rank Index is an index score (0-100) which compares the Beauty Rank of the
analyzed face with the scores of all previously analyzed faces. Since the software has been
downloaded more than 100.000, it makes it highly assumable that the random test group reflects the
average population.
This variable Beauty Rank Index made it possible to compare the (absolute values of ) Beauty Rank of
the top athletes with average people. The conclusion was a very interesting one.
The average Beauty Rank Index of the top athletes in my research was 80,08. This means that on
average 80,08 percent of all the analyzed people have a less attractive face than an average top
footballer from my sample group and 19,92 have a more attractive face.
According to the software, a person with a BRI of 50% has a perfect average face compared to all the
previously analyzed faces.
This leads to the conclusion that top athletes on average are physically more attractive than the
average population. Dr. Marquardt’s statement about the relationship between top athletes and
physical symmetry was valid.
Main Research Questions
In this part I will start with answering the main research questions of this dissertation in general and
give more specified conclusions for every sub question.
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The main research question of this dissertation is:
Is there a relationship between the physical attractiveness of the footballer and his leadership
position in the team as team captain?
Answer:
No, this research did not prove a relationship between physical attractiveness and a players role as
team captain. I did several tests with the physical attractiveness variable and how they correlated
with other variables, but it showed no relations between the variables.
The secondary research question of this dissertation is:
Which other factors are of influence for being a team captain?
Answer:
I researched different physical features of the football players for their relationship with the team
captain position. Those variables were:

the length of the player

the age of the player
In this research no relationship was found between the length and the field position of the player
and the team captain position. The age of the player did have a relationship with the leadership
position. Also was found that there is a relationship between the length of the players and the field
position they play in. In the following part I will discuss these separate research questions more
exhaustively.
Summary table of all the research questions of this thesis and their results:
Are physical attractive footballers more likely to be a team captain?
Is there a relationship between the players length and his physical attractiveness?
Is there a relationship between the physical attractiveness of the footballer and his age?
Is there a relationship between the players length and his position as team captain or regular
player?
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Is there a relationship between the age of the player and his position as team captain or
regular player?
Is there a relationship between the position in the field the footballer plays in and his length?
= No statistical significant evidence found in this research
= Statistical significant evidence found in this research
The main reason for finding so less statistical relationships is probably because the differences
between team captains and regular football players are too small. All top athletes show to be
physically more attractive and taller than average people. For more significant results and future
research larger differences in test groups should be considered.
Following I will discuss the research questions separately:
1.a. Are physical attractive footballers more likely to be a team captain?
This research did not prove a relationship between physical attractiveness and leadership in sports.
There could be several possible explanations for this.
As presented before at the results of the research questions, the results show that these top
footballers on average are much more attractive than the average analyzed faces.
All the players in the sample are among the best athletes of the world. Dr. Marquardt assumption is
that all top athletes are predisposed to physical symmetry. It is this symmetry which makes them
good athletes, and results in so many athletes being attractive according to him. Following his theory,
this could explain the high average of physical attractiveness among the football players. This could
also have influence on the results of this research.
Since the top athletes in the sample have a high average physical attractiveness, it makes it harder to
measure significant differences between the captains and regular players.
Another explanation for not finding correlation could be that all or at least more than one player per
team has leadership capabilities and the therewith assumed physical features. On this top level of
teams, there could be more players in the team that are physically capable and have the physical
build for being the team leader. That could also be why with this dataset no relationship was found.
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From this research we can conclude that there is no significant difference in attractiveness between
the football players, but there is a severe positive difference in average attractiveness comparing
them to a random test group which could be considered average.
1.b. Is there a relationship between the players length and his physical attractiveness?
This research showed no relation between the length and physical attractiveness of the player.
Both variables showed that the football players in this sample scored higher than average people.
With an average of 182,8 centimeter football players are about 8 centimeter taller than the average
American. They are even on average 3 centimeter taller than the average Dutch man, who are
considered to be the tallest of the world. Though not statistically significant it was interesting to see
that the captains on average were shorter than the regular players. Somewhat surprising after
reading the academic literature about length and leadership. This again could be explained as an
example of the lack of difference between the two test groups
With an average physical attractiveness index of 80,08 they are also scoring higher on physical
attractiveness than average people that have been analyzed previously. All thought with both
variables the footballers score higher than average, there seems to be no correlation between the
two. The conclusion is that though not significantly tested, the football players on average are taller
and more attractive than average.
1.c. Is there a relationship between the physical attractiveness of the footballer and his age?
This research shows no relationship between the physical attractiveness of the footballer and his age.
There could be several reasons for this result.
The most logical would be that due better health conditions and the safe world we live in, the faces
of men between the age of 20 and 40 do not decline significantly in physical attractiveness. It might
be that they get wrinkles or other symptoms of aging, but their facial proportions remain the same.
Since this is what the software measures, this could explain the lack of correlation.
Another explanation for this could be the limited age range that the sample group had and the fact
that they are all top athletes could play a role. As quoted from Dr. Marquardt before, his theory is
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that top athletes have good symmetry. Since aging between your 20th and 40th year does not change
your symmetric proportions, the chance of finding correlations with age are minimum.
Concluding we can state that with this type of measurement technique and this sample group of
athletes, it is not likely to find a relation between the age and physical attractiveness.
2.a. Is there a relationship between the players length and his position as team captain or regular
player?
In this research no relationship was found between the length of the player and the team captain
position. This could be explained in two ways.
First of all the logical conclusion could be that in football the height of the player is no determining
factor when it comes to leadership.
Secondly the statistics show that all top footballers are taller on average than average persons. The
results of the sample showed that the average footballer was 182.8 centimeter, which is almost 8
centimeter taller than the average American and 3 centimeter taller than the on average tallest men;
the Dutch. Since all the footballers are taller on average, it could make it harder to measure
significant differences between captains and regular players if they are there.
Like the example of the CEO’s of fortune 500 companies, these top athletes have a height advantage
on average people. This would add up to the previously presented academic theory that taller people
are more successful.
2.b. Is there a relationship between the age of the player and his position as team captain or
regular player?
This research showed that the average age of captains is almost 4 years higher than that of the
regular players. Academic literature presented in theory part stated that the human bodies physical
peak is at 26 years. At the top level of football the average age of regular players in this sample is
26,5. This supports the theory of physical top performance of the body in the game of football.
The captains in this sample are 30,5 years on average. According to Dr. Kalb’s research, which was
presented before, they are over their physical top level. To be precisely, their physical strength
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should have decreased somewhere around 2 percent. According to Dr. Kalb, after the age of 25,
people lose 4 percent of their muscle mass every decade.
An important conclusion of this research is that peak physical fitness is no direct significant indicator
for leadership in football. The average age of 30,5 of captains proves that the 4 year increase in
experience of the footballer weight more than the decrease in physical ability. It seems that
experience and maturity also in sports are an important factor when it comes to defining leadership.
2.c. Is there a relationship between the position on the field the footballer plays in and length?
This research shows there is a significant relationship between the position on the field and the
players length. The average lengths of the players seem to be descending according to the field
positions from the back (goalkeeper) to the front (striker) of the field.
As previously mentioned, these top athletes, like CEO’s, are successful and significantly taller than
average people. The goalkeepers in this test are the tallest on average with 187.6 centimeter, which
is 12,8 centimeter taller than the average American. Even the strikers who are the smallest on
average with 180 centimeter are still 5.5 centimeter taller than the average American.
From the game’s perspective these statistics could be explained by the amount of high balls that
those players positions have to handle in the game. Previously presented evidence from Dr. Arnason
et al. also proved that goal keepers on average are the tallest of the football team.
The theory of Dr. Arnason et al. is that goalkeepers are specialists with specific physical features
compared to the rest of the team gets more support when we look at results of the beauty rank. The
SPSS statistics show that, though not significantly, goalkeepers in this sample scored a lot lower in
physical attractiveness. The exact reasons for these differences between goal keepers and players
might be interesting for further research.
4.2 Implications
In this part I will discuss the implications of the findings of this research. The most important
conclusions from this research are:
 Top athletes are on average physically more attractive than average people
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 Leadership in football is not solely defined by physical attractiveness and symmetry, but age
and experience are significant important factors
 Top athletes are taller than average people
This research found evidence for the theory of Dr. Marquardt with the results showing that top
athletes are more attractive than the average people. He stated that top athletes have to have good
symmetry and that is the reason why they are top athletes. When further academic research
supports this theory, this could be used in reverse to predict athletic capability based on physical
attractiveness. Interesting would be to analyze other top athletes in different sports to see if there
are differences.
Results showed that footballers are taller than average. This supports the theory (A. Timothy et.al,
2004) that taller people are financially more successful. Interesting for further research would be to
analyze if there also is a relationship between the wages of the top athletes and their lengths.
The findings reported in this research contribute to the existing literature about born or learned
leadership. It supports the theory that it is a bit of both. The athlete needs to be among the physical
fittest to be part of the team, but the absolute physically fittest is not automatically the group leader.
Age and maturity in team sports play a much stronger role than solely physical features when it
comes to leadership selection.
Interesting would be to research the relationship between top performance and age in non team
sports (with the same physical level). This way could be measured what the ideal combination of the
variables age and physical fitness is for top athletes in general.
Team coaches could use these statistics for their team leader selection. Though in practice those
decisions seem not often to be made based on statistics, but more on the personal perceptions of
the coach.
4.3 Limitations
This research is focused on the topics leadership and physical attractiveness. Both subjects have been
thoroughly explored separately, but current literature neglects the relationship between both. The
lack of specific academic literature limited this research because a lot of assumptions had to be used
instead of academic significant evidence.
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This research relied on attractiveness measurement data of 300 football players. Since the
measurements were done by photos which were not specifically taken for this research, it increased
the chance of measurement errors. A real measurement of the faces would have increased the
preciseness of the research. Yet, this is unrealistic to expect for a marketing dissertation.
Some conclusions for top athletes were based on the findings with the top footballers sample group.
It could be that top athletes who practice specific kind of sports that require significantly different
body features, do not match with these conclusions.
Another limitation is the sample group that is used as the average group to the compare
attractiveness index with. Though the faces that were analyzed are random, there is no proof or data
about who the test subjects of the random sample group are and what their age, sex or BMI is for
example. This way cannot be guaranteed that this group is a good reflection for the average . These
are factors that could influence the score of the average physical attractiveness index and thereby
the athletes scores.
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Physical attractiveness and leadership in team sport
EUR, School of Economics, Marketing
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Physical attractiveness and leadership in team sport
EUR, School of Economics, Marketing
Appendix
1. The making of the marquardt mask
Here is shown step by step how the marquardt mask is developed with the golden section’s
mathematical rules
2. Top 3 highest and lowest ranked players by the Beauty rank software
Here are the three highest ranked players according to the Beauty Rank Index:
1. Niklas Moisander
2.Max Gradel
3.Francisco Puñal
26 year (Captain)
24 year (Player)
36 year (Captain)
Here are the three lowest ranked players according to the Beauty Rank Index:
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Physical attractiveness and leadership in team sport
EUR, School of Economics, Marketing
1.Emerson da Conceição
25 year (Player)
2. Miroslav Barčík
3. Luisão
33 year (Captain)
30 year (Captain)
3. SPSS Outputs for paragraph 3.3
Here are the SPSS outputs of paragraph 3.3. Sorted per research question.
1.a. Are physical attractive footballers more likely to be a team captain?
Using the Independent Samples T-Test with variables Captainship and Beauty Rank gave the
following results:
Group Statistics
Captain or
Regular player
Beauty Rank of player
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
Std. Error Mean
0
150
65,0333
51,97979
4,24413
Captain
150
62,9333
47,59331
3,88598
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1.b. Is there a relationship between the player’s length and his physical attractiveness?
For researching correlations between the length of the players and their physical attractiveness the
Pearson Correlation Coefficient is used with the variables Beauty Rank and length of player. Here are
the results:
Group Statistics
Captain or
Regular player
Length of player in cm
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
Std. Error Mean
Regular
150
183,37
6,152
,502
Captain
150
182,39
5,839
,477
Descriptive Statistics
Mean
Std. Deviation
N
Length of player in cm
182,88
6,007
300
Beauty Rank of player
63,9833
49,76254
300
Correlations
Length of player in cm
Length of player in cm
Pearson Correlation
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Beauty Rank of player
Pearson Correlation
Beauty Rank of player
-,038
,515
300
300
-,038
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
,515
N
300
300
1.c. Is there a relationship between the physical attractiveness of the footballer and his age?
For researching correlations between the physical attractiveness of the players and their age the
Pearson Correlation Coefficient is used with the variables Beauty Rank and Age of player. Here are
the outputs from SPSS:
Descriptive Statistics
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Physical attractiveness and leadership in team sport
EUR, School of Economics, Marketing
Mean
Std. Deviation
N
Beauty Rank of player 63,9833
49,76254
300
Age of player
4,504
300
28,60
Correlations
Beauty Rank of player
Beauty Rank of player Pearson Correlation 1
-,056
Sig. (2-tailed)
,333
N
Age of player
Age of player
300
300
Pearson Correlation -,056
Sig. (2-tailed)
,333
N
300
1
300
2.a. Is there a relationship between the player’s length and his position as team captain or regular
player?
These are the results of an independent samples test that compares the lengths of all players and
captains.
Group Statistics
Captain or
Regular player
Length of player in cm
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
Std. Error Mean
Regular
150
183,37
6,152
,502
Captain
150
182,39
5,839
,477
The Point-Biserial correlation outputs:
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EUR, School of Economics, Marketing
Descriptive Statistics
Mean
Std. Deviation
N
Captain or Regular player
,50
,501
300
Length of player in cm
182,88
6,007
300
Correlations
Captain or Regular player
Pearson Correlation
Captain or
Length of player
Regular player
in cm
1
-,082
Sig. (2-tailed)
Length of player in cm
,158
N
300
300
Pearson Correlation
-,082
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
,158
N
300
300
2.b. Is there a relationship between the age of the player and his position as team captain or
regular player?
These are the results of a Group statistics to compare the means.
Group Statistics
Captain or
Regular
player
Age of player
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
Std. Error Mean
0
150
26,67
4,258
,348
Captain
150
30,52
3,891
,318
This are the results of the Point-Biserial correlation:
Descriptive Statistics
Mean
Age of player
Captain or Regular player
Std. Deviation
N
28,60
4,504
300
,50
,501
300
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Correlations
Captain or
Age of player
Age of player
Pearson Correlation
Regular player
,428**
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
,000
N
Captain or Regular player
Pearson Correlation
300
300
,428**
1
Sig. (2-tailed)
,000
N
300
300
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
2.c. Is there a relationship between the position on the field the footballer plays in and length?
For this test ANOVA is used:
ANOVA
Length of player in cm
Sum of Squares
df
Mean Square
Between Groups
2028,493
3
676,164
Within Groups
8761,944
296
29,601
10790,437
299
Total
F
22,842
Sig.
,000
Is there a relationship between the physical attractiveness of the footballer and the position in the
field he plays in?
For this analysis the ANOVA model and the variables Field position and Beauty rank are used.
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ANOVA
Beauty Rank of player
Sum of Squares
Between Groups
df
Mean Square
6307,055
3
2102,352
Within Groups
734109,862
296
2480,101
Total
740416,917
299
F
Sig.
,848
,469
64