評論
打印
Business Bartleby
商業版塊，巴托比專欄
The curse of the headshot
頭像的詛咒
What explains the corporate custom of strange poses and painted smiles
擺出奇怪姿勢和標準微笑拍照的企業習俗應作何解釋
Do an image search for the word “business” or “manager”, and what comes back?
輸入“商業”或“經理”這個詞來搜索圖片，會有什么結果？
Nothing that remotely resembles business or managers.
一些和商業或者經理沒有任何相似之處的東西。
It isn’t just that the people are attractive.
這不僅僅是因為圖片里的人很有魅力。
It is what they are doing.
而是圖片中人們在做什么。
Many stock photos feature well-dressed types sitting around a table.
許多常見照片上都是衣著光鮮的人圍坐在桌子旁。
One of them is holding forth and everyone else is laughing madly, like cult members hearing that the Rapture has been brought forward a week.
其中一個人滔滔不絕，其他人瘋狂大笑，就像宗教成員聽說"被提"要早一周來臨一樣。
In other pictures, a speaker is pointing at a pie chart.
在其他圖片中，一位演講者指著一張餅分圖。
Her colleagues look astonished at what they are seeing.
她的同事們對所看到的東西感到非常驚訝。
Or people are shaking hands, purposefully and often.
或者人們在刻意地、頻繁地握手。
If they are ever left to their own devices, they stand in front of floor-to-ceiling windows and gaze moodily at the skyline.
如果是單獨出現，他們會站在大落地窗前，憂郁地凝視著天際線。
What could they be thinking?
他們會在想什么呢？
Is it about what was on that pie chart?
是不是在想那張餅分圖上有什么？
Some amount of business life involves sitting around a table.
在商業生活中，有時候確實需要圍坐在桌子旁。
Occasionally there is laughter.
偶爾也會有笑聲。
But if you wanted to represent the reality of a meeting, one person would be talking, two people would be listening and everyone else would be wearing the glazed expression of clerics who have just lost their faith.
但如果想如實表現一場會議，那么應該是一個人在講話，兩個人在聽，其他所有人都是一幅剛剛失去信仰的神職人員的呆滯表情。
If there was an accurate stock photo of someone working at a desk, its surface would be covered in crumbs and the laptop screen would be showing its owner’s social-media account.
如果是一張精確地表現某人在工位上工作的常見照片，那么桌子上應該撒滿零零碎碎的東西，筆記本電腦的屏幕上會顯示這個人的社交媒體頁面。
The corporate headshot is the way that firms use photography to bend reality.
企業頭像是公司利用攝影來扭曲現實的方式。
But whereas stock photos tend to glamorise business, headshots achieve the reverse.
但是，盡管常見照片往往會美化企業，但頭像卻會實現相反的效果。
They make corporate life seem less fun than it actually is.
它們讓公司生活看起來沒有實際那么有趣。
Most companies’ websites contain a gallery of their senior executives and boards, the product of hours of awkward primping and posing.
大多數公司的網站都有高管和董事會成員的照片，這是幾個小時的尷尬打扮和擺姿勢的產物。
Executives are caked in make-up and asked to look into the camera with a succession of forced smiles.
高管們頂著厚厚的妝，被要求帶著一連串強顏歡笑的表情看著鏡頭。
The results are consistently appalling.
結果總是令人驚駭的。
Most end up looking like well-dressed hostages.
大多數人最終看起來都像穿著考究的人質。
Someone, usually the general counsel, looks so pained that he or she appears to have just been Tasered.
有些人，通常是總法律顧問，看起來非常痛苦，就像他或她剛剛被電擊了一樣。
One or two eschew smiles altogether: in this context they are the hostage-takers.
有一兩個人完全避免微笑：在這種情況下，他們就像是劫持人質的人。
The awkwardness is amplified if the photographer has decided to show more than a person’s head and shoulders.
如果攝影師決定把頭和肩膀之外的部分也放入鏡頭，這種尷尬就會被放大。
Pity the executives who have been forced to stand side on to the camera, tilt their heads slightly like a giant parrot, fold their arms and told to look natural.
這些高管被迫側身站在鏡頭前，像一只巨大的鸚鵡一樣微微傾斜頭部，雙臂交叉，還要表現得很自然，可憐可憐他們吧。
If you ever saw someone standing like this in real life, you would think “better cross to the other side”, not “I bet that person is great at creating shareholder value.”
如果你在現實生活中看到一個人像這樣站著，你會想“最好從另一邊走過去”，而不是“我打賭那個人很擅長創造股東價值”。
What on earth is going on?
到底是怎么回事？
There is some research to suggest that profile photos can have a useful effect in commercial settings.
有一些研究表明，個人資料照片在商業環境中可以產生有用的影響。
Humans are quick to form judgments about others by looking at their faces: baby-faced people are regarded as more trustworthy than those who look older, for example, whereas more mature faces convey expertise.
人類看到面容后能很快對他人做出判斷：例如，娃娃臉的人被認為比那些看起來更老的人更值得信任，而更成熟的臉則看起來更專業。
A recent paper from Stuart Barnes of King’s College London and Samuel Kirshner of the University of New South Wales looked at the impact of facial characteristics on the prices that Airbnb hosts can charge their guests.
倫敦國王學院的斯圖爾特·巴恩斯和新南威爾士大學的塞繆爾·基什納最近發表了一篇論文，研究了面部特征對愛彼迎房東向客人收取費用的影響。
They found that hosts with attractive and trustworthy faces could charge up to 5% more per night than their peers for similar apartments.
他們發現，擁有迷人和值得信賴的相貌的房東每晚能比同類公寓的房東多收取5%的費用。
Unsurprisingly, perceived trustworthiness mattered more for small, shared accommodation.
不出所料，人們感覺到的信任度對小戶型和共享的住宿更重要。
But the decisions made by consumers on online marketplaces do not explain corporate headshots.
但消費者在網上市場做出的決定并不能解釋企業的頭像拍攝。
Maybe some people try to choose between Disney+ and Netflix by going to the About Us section of their websites, but it seems unlikely.
也許有些人會訪問迪士尼+和網飛的官網，點擊“關于我們”，然后決定選擇二者中的哪一個，但這似乎不太可能。
And even if executive profiles were somehow feeding into the subconscious decisions of investors and job applicants, it is not at all clear what type of photograph should follow.
即使高管簡介以某種方式影響了投資者和求職者的潛意識決策，也完全不清楚應該出現哪種類型的照片。
Managers will already be trying to convey an impossible brew of leadership qualities, from breezy confidence to naked vulnerability.
經理們已經在努力傳達一種不可能的領導力品質，從輕松的自信到不加掩飾的脆弱。
Now they have to look baby-faced too?
現在他們也要看起來像娃娃臉了？
No wonder people end up gurning.
難怪人們最后開始扮鬼臉。
So what does lie behind this strangely pervasive custom?
那么，這種奇怪的普遍習俗背后隱藏著什么呢？
A headshot is something for a new executive to show their mother, and for a weary one to show recruiters.
頭像是新任高管給他們的母親看的東西，也是疲憊的高管給招聘人員看的東西。
It is useful for employees who have no idea what their ultimate boss looks like.
對于不知道大老板是什么樣子的員工來說，這是很有用的。
Leadership galleries increasingly serve as a crude but quick measure of diversity.
領導層照片集越來越多地被用作衡量多樣性的粗略但快速的指標。
Perhaps the most plausible explanation is that it is just something that everyone else does.
也許最合理的解釋是，這只是因為其他所有人都在這樣做。
It is odd to have a leadership team that does not show their faces.
有一個不露面的領導團隊是很奇怪的。
Odd but not impossible.
很奇怪，但也不是不可能。
Alphabet lists its board members’ names and eschews photos altogether.
Alphabet列出了董事會成員的名字，但完全不用照片。
You just have to imagine them, shaking their heads in amazement at a graph.
你只能想象他們的模樣：對著一張圖表驚訝地搖頭稱嘆。
