An important, and as yet unanswered, question concerns the accuracy of judgments based on facial appearances: Are competent-looking politicians actually more competent than their not-so-competent-looking rivals? Or, more broadly, can you tell something about a political candidate solely from his or her appearance? Play our Political Guessing Game to find out!
In this game you will be presented with photos of political candidates and asked to guess their political affiliation. Once you finish the game, you can find out how well you were able to distinguish Republicans and Democrats by their appearance. In addition, your participation will help answer important questions about the human ability to draw information from the faces of politicians.
Are you a scientist? Have you recently read a peer-reviewed paper that you want to write about? Then contact Mind Matters co-editor Gareth Cook, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist at the Boston Globe, where he edits the Sunday Ideas section.
See what we're tweeting about
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.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this