Want to sell something? Grow a beard

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Unless it's about underwear, bearded men are deemed more trustworthy.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that in a recent study in the  Journal of Marketing Communications, clean-shaven fellows were less successful in selling products such as cell phones or toothpaste than the same men with beards. Interestingly, this was not the case for underwear.

According to the Chronicle, which stressed that the study only looked at "neat, medium-length beards," the researchers involved think that their findings could impact not only on advertising but also on other fields where a trustworthy appearance matters, such as politics.

The "presence of a beard on the face of candidates could boost their charisma, reliability, and above all their expertise as perceived by voters, with positive effects on voting intention," they said in their release.

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/The-Trustworthiness-of-Beards/22581