The Electoral Success of Beauties and Beasts

Attractiveness and Facial Competence Bias Face‐Based Inferences of Candidate Ideology

“…Scores varied considerably, with right‐wing candidates being perceived as somewhat less attractive and less competent, on average, than their left‐wing opponents (attractiveness of right‐wing candidate: range = [0%, 0.94%], M = 0.40%, SD = 0.27, 95% CI [31%, 48%]; competence of right‐wing candidate: range = [0.07%, 0.69%], M = 0.42%, SD = 0.17, 95% CI [37%, 48%]). In line with previous findings (Berggren et al, ; Lutz, ; Mattes et al, ; Olivola & Todorov, ), competence and attractiveness scores were moderately correlated (r = 0.34, n = 40, p = 0.03).…”

“…The broader literature on the role of faces in politics suggests that both attractiveness and facial competence predict candidates' electoral success, and the few studies that test both factors simultaneously reach different conclusions as to which one is the main predictor of electoral success. For instance, attractiveness is a stronger predictor in Berggren et al () and Lutz (), while facial competence is a stronger predictor in Laustsen (2013) and Olivola and Todorov (). Our goal in this study was to establish whether and to what extent impressions of either attractiveness or competence affect the predictive value of face‐based inferences about a candidate's political attitudes.…”

“…The attractiveness halo is well‐known and documented (e.g., Moore, Filippou, & Perrett, ; Sigall & Ostrove, ; Zebrowitz, Voinescu, & Collins, ). Attractive persons are often judged more favorably, and attractive candidates have been shown to win more votes (e.g., Berggren et al, ; Lutz, ; Rosar et al, ). In inferring candidates' ideological positions, our prediction is that an observer will believe his or her preferred candidate is the more attractive one and hence assign his or her favored political position to that candidate (Bull & Hawkes, ; Jahoda, ; Johnson, ; Marks & Miller, ).…”

“… Countries include Australia (e.g., King & Leigh, ; Little, Burriss, Jones, & Roberts, ; Martin, ), Brazil (Lawson, Lenz, Baker, & Myers, ), Canada (Efran & Patterson, ), Finland (e.g., Berggren, Jordahl, & Poutvaara, ), France (Antonakis & Dalgas, ), Germany (e.g., Klein & Rosar, ; Rosar, Klein, & Beckers, ), Italy (Castelli, Carraro, Ghitti, & Pastore, ), Ireland (Buckley, Collins, & Reidy, ), Japan (Rule, Ambady, Adams, & Ozono, ), Mexico (Lawson et al, ), New Zealand (Little et al, ), Switzerland (Lutz, ), the United Kingdom (e.g., Banducci, Karp, Thrasher, & Rallings, ; Little et al, ; Mattes & Milazzo, ), and the United States (e.g., Lenz & Lawson, ; Spezio et al, ; Todorov, Mandisodza, Goren, & Hall, ). For reviews of this literature see Hall, Goren, Chaiken, and Todorov () and Olivola and Todorov ().…”

Pretty faces, marginal races: Predicting election outcomes using trait assessments of British parliamentary candidates

“…We limit our analyses to two traits that play a prominent role in the literature to date: attractiveness and competence. Perceptions of physical attractiveness have been shown to increase electoral success cross-nationally (e.g., Sigelman et al, 1987;King and Leigh, 2007;Rosar et al, 2008;Lutz, 2010). 9 These findings coincide with those from social psychologists, which indicate that physically attractive individuals tend to be evaluated more positively and are more successful professionally (Marlowe et al 1996;Haas and Gregory 2005).…”