Up-and-left as a spatial cue of leadership

Abstract

Cues of leadership are features that signal who is (or who is expected to be) the leader in a specific context. Although their use is widespread, empirical research is scarce, especially for spatial positioning as a sign of leadership. Based on work on spatial biases, we suggest here that the upper-left corner of a page is a spatial position associated with leadership. In the present studies (N = 455), we investigated this hypothesis and showed that a layout with a photograph positioned in the upper-left corner (compared to the upper-right, lower-left, or lower-right corner) led people to infer that the person portrayed in the photograph had a leading (vs. subordinate) role in the organization. Participants also thought that the upper-left corner was the ideal spatial position to convey a leading (vs. subordinate) role in an organization. Implications of these results for symbols of leadership and spatial biases are discussed.

Keywords: spatial biases; symbols of leadership.