Do voters take politicians at 'face' value? Research shows some people are swayed by looks alone

[DeepModem Mom]

USA Today: Do voters take politicians at 'face' value?
By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY

Candidates campaign on the issues, but new research shows some people are swayed by looks alone. Although rendering a snap judgment on a candidate's competence with just a quick glance may seem a superficial way to judge people, a Princeton University study finds that such reasoning accurately predicted election outcomes in about 70% of gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races last year.
First impressions affect real-world outcomes, and those who base judgments on those impressions often do so unconsciously, says study co-author Alexander Todorov, an assistant professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton....

The research, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was based on experiments involving about 300 people who didn't know anything about the candidates whose photos they were shown. Participants had a split-second look at the images and were asked to render a "gut feeling" about who was more competent. The new study supports research Todorov published two years ago in the journal Science....

After the elections, the researchers compared the competency judgments and election outcomes and found that participants selected winners in 72.4% of senatorial races and 68.6% of gubernatorial contests....A study by Scottish researcher Anthony Little published earlier this year in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior also found that facial appearance can affect election outcomes.

Todorov says he had a difficult time believing his own findings were so pronounced. "I was surprised the first time. I replicated it three or four times before I was convinced that's a real effect," he says. "I was surprised how strong the effect was."

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2007-10-22-politicians-snap-judgments_N.htm

[unpossibles]

1. just proves the elections were stolen?

I mean, Bush is not exactly a looker.

Then again, he was well-groomed by the media - which is how most get their perceptions, sadly.

[Igel]

2. Nobody said "good-looking". n/t