I have noticed this and if you're not completely adverse to studies there are actually a few studies that show small sample sizes ranking people with beards as more authoritative and domineering so there may be an element of that at play here.
Beardedness as a factor in perceived masculinity.
114 male and female college students rated pictures of bearded and beardless men on characteristics associated with masculinity. Bearded men were rated significantly higher on masculinity, aggressiveness, dominance, and strength. Results are discussed in light of apparently contradictory evidence suggesting that bearded men are seen as less desirable than beardless men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
. Beard growth had equivocal effects on attractiveness judgments. In contrast, perceptions of men’s dominance simply increased with increasing masculinity (i.e., with lower-pitched voices and greater beard growth). Together, these results suggest that the optimal level of physical masculinity might differ depending on whether the outcome is social dominance or mate attraction. These dual selection pressures might maintain some of the documented variability in male physical and behavioral masculinity that we see today.
(According to this those of us with big beards have moved from mate attraction to seeking ultimate social domination!)
Also some studies point to the fact that those that perceive themselves as having more dominant attributes will also emanate more dominant characteristics.
(2) men who believe they are physically dominant to their competitor lower their voice pitch when addressing him, whereas men who believe they are less dominant raise it. We also found a nonsignificant trend for men who speak at a lower pitch to report more sexual partners in the past year. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that male intrasexual competition was a salient selection pressure on the voices of ancestral males and contributed to human voice sexual dimorphism.
If you allay yourself to the notion that social hen-pecking is primordially a feminine game then it stands to reason that those operating from a feminine game with the end goal of compliance would prefer to extol resources on men they can force to easily submit as opposed to those they may perceive as having high levels of aggression, dominance and of course we cannot overlook, mating opportunity with.
This I suspect was why in the UK there was quite a commotion early doors regarding mens beards and the 'unofficial' advice was that all men should cut their beards off to ensure the mask will seal around the chin.
But never fear, because,
To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair.
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed,
The bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress.
The hate of men will pass, and dictators die,
And the beards they took from the people will return to the people.
And so long as men die, beards will never perish.
Don't give your beards to these unnatural men -
Machine men with machine minds and machine hearts!
You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are beared men!
You, the beared people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful,
To make this life a wonderful bearded adventure
Let us use that Samson beard power!
Let us all unite!
.. thank you. I needed that.
