ABSTRACT
The significance of the face for political communication has long been appreciated by practitioners and commentators alike, with the face expressing not just immediate emotional experience and behavioral intent but also reflecting an individual’s character as well. Individuals compete for positions of power and then exert influence largely due to their ability to communicate nonverbally, chiefly through the face. Nonverbal communication signals that leaders possess the requisite qualities for group members to cede control to them and that they have the capacity to lead the group in effectively confronting obstacles. For their part, the mass media operates as an intermediary between a political leader and his or her presumed followers by offering virtual faceto-face contact that hearkens back to the evolutionary roots of small group decision making.
