What draws us to a leader?
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The Wisdom of Psychopaths
In this engrossing journey into the lives of psychopaths and their infamously crafty behaviors, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton reveals that there is a...
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When we walk into a voting booth and cast our vote, we like to think that we are making a considered decision, based on the issues. After all, a properly functioning democratic system, which gives its citizens the power to choose their leaders and shape critical policies, requires that voters are, for the most part, rational and that society can trust them to make sound judgments.
Perhaps partly for this reason, choosing competent leaders is considered too important to be left to minors, which is why most democracies only allow their adult citizens to vote. You wouldn’t think, therefore, that a group of children would be able to predict the outcome of elections in another country, based only on photos of the candidates.
And yet, this is exactly what a recent study in the journal Science has found. The study, conducted by psychologists John Antonakis and Olaf Dalgas at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, shows that Swiss children as young as five years can predict which candidates are more likely to win French parliamentary elections.
This finding contributes to a large and growing body of evidence, coming from many research groups, which shows that voters seem to be heavily influenced by a candidate’s appearance, and in particular the kinds of personality traits that a politician’s face projects. This result is strange considering the political stakes. We may agree that one candidate looks more approachable or intelligent than another, but why do we then allow these superficial impressions to guide our political preferences?
The field of cognitive psychology teaches us that, when faced with a data deluge, the human mind tends to simplify the decision-making process by relying on quick and easy strategies, or what many scientists refer to as “heuristics.” Given the complexity of voting—candidates hold many, subtle positions, and voters are bombarded with information—it should come as no surprise that voters take mental shortcuts to arrive at their final decisions. Although some of these strategies, such as voting along party lines, may be reasonable, others are harder to justify, and thus call into question the very notion of the rational voter.
The Wisdom of Under-Age Crowds
Consider a pair of photos. (Click on "next" above, just under the image at the beginning of the post.) Which of these two men appears more competent to you? If you think that the person on the right looks more competent, then you are in agreement with most respondents. These kinds of impressions from facial appearance can be formed after as little as one tenth of a second exposure to faces. Moreover, they can affect important social outcomes ranging from criminal sentencing to electoral success. The two men pictured were, in fact, the leading candidates in a French parliamentary election and the one deemed more competent-looking actually won the election. Of course, it could be that in this particular race the winner happened to look more competent.A number of recent studies, however, have shown that rapid judgments about the personality traits of political candidates, based only on their facial appearance, predict electoral success well above chance.
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10 Comments
Add CommentFacial expressions can tell far more than we expect. As the saying goes, the face expresses the mind, it is no nonsense that all kinds of leaders rely heavily on their looks for getting popularity. Politics is the foremost because, in most cases, for most of the citizens, it is just an occasion to chose and forget. This doesn't apply on the film stars however. Still, in many countries, especially India, there are ample number of film stars who chose to go to politics and had adequate support.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thislike ronald reagan or arnold schawrzenegger
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat about even "Love at first sight"? Is it not based on the first look of the face?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn India, even foreign (American and Western) educated boys and girls choose their life-time mates for marriage just from the look of the face out of a bunch of probable matches selected by their parents!
So a face has a lot to tell!!
Hence, the Obamanation!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHence the Obamanation!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMost interesting - could someone say if a similar study has been made as to how the voice quality of political candidates affects voting preferences?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo basically this study firms up what you probably already knew from high school: pretty people become popular and are voted to the homecoming court. Duh! This study is most damning for the portion of a nation's population who watches the most TV and has the least political knowledge. Apparently, you can reliably sway their votes by simply selling them attractive candidates for public office! A previous commenter suggested that this factoid could explain President Obama's victory. I'll accept their assertion is possible if they'll concede the same for the completely unfathomable ongoing popularity of Sara Palin.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Obamanation is reasonable unlike the abomination of the right-wing conservative religious hate groups.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen I am judging the two candidates I am seeing much more that just the face on those two photos. I am also seeing the difference of the balance of the head on the two candidates and from that I can infer the overall posture. As a teacher of the Alexander technique I can see that the one on the right has better "use" of himself than the one on the left.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf this is all possible, then it should be possible too to stop following political debates and spend hours comparing political viewpoints to find the best party for me to vote for. Instead, we could have a voting advice application based on intuition which tells us our preference within seconds. That is actually what you will find on electoral-headhunter.com. Intriguing or disturbing? You decide.
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