Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution mentions the study in which people were asked to judge the competency of a picture of a political candidate unknown to the participant, and “the candidate perceived as more competent was the winner in 72 percent of the Senate races and 67 percent of the House races.”
I think that Randall Parker, aka the FuturePundit sums it up really well when he says “[d]emocracy is flawed because humans are shallow and superficial.”
Kaptain Kapital thinks this isn’t a big deal. “Once again scientists tell us something we already know.”
I disagree with the Kaptain, I say that it is a big deal because this is one of those things that people secretly know but they pretend not to. Quantifying human behavior is always an interesting endeavor.
If we combine this observation with another related observation that the taller candidate is more likely to win, we might come up with a good election predictor based on height plus perception of competence.
My favorite factoid in this realm is that among radio listeners rather than television, Nixon won the debate over Kennedy in 1960.
Posted by: KipEsquire | June 16, 2005 at 12:20 AM
You know Warren G. Harding was basically the Johnny Bravo of US Presidents. He was groomed and puppeteered by an influential senator all the way to the White House.
Another interesting way to look at this is Q Scores (google it). They are used to determine likeability for potential TV personalities. A Q Score consists of a quick flash of a person's picture followed by a person giving either a like or don't like - basically thumbs up or thumbs down. Take a bunch of people looking at the same picture and average their responses - there's your Q Score. Incidentally, high Q Scores (like say Oprah and Tom Brokaw) correlate with relative attractiveness - asymetrically featured, snaggle-toothed people don't get high Q Scores. I have often wondered what would have happened had John Edwards run as the candidate rather than Kerry. I bet it would be have been closer - his hair, my God, how could he lose?
Posted by: Enlightened Caveman | June 18, 2005 at 11:46 PM
Caveman, according to the article, people with "baby faces" aren't respected as politicians, and I think Edwards has a baby face. Doesn't he? Or is it my imagination?
Posted by: Half Sigma | June 19, 2005 at 10:37 PM
Edwards has that gay vague vibe...
Posted by: Scott S | June 19, 2005 at 11:50 PM