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Look Competent, Win Elections?
Which person is more competent?
Russell D. Feingold (D) and Tim J. Michels (R) ran against each other in the 2004 Senate race for Wisconsin, and they are one set of faces used in the experiments. In all experiments, the positions of the faces were counterbalanced. Image courtesy of Capitol Advantage.
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Winning congressional candidates were more likely than their opponents to have faces that looked competent to volunteers participating in a new study published in the 10 June 2005 issue of the journal Science.
Researchers have identified two different types of decision-making processes that might be involved in making voting choices. System 1 processes are fast, unreflective and effortless — and appear to be highly predictive of voting outcomes — while system 2 processes are slow, deliberate, and effortful, and would seem to be more relevant for choosing a candidate.
Studies have shown that competence is one of the most important criteria people claim to use for evaluating politicians. The authors investigated whether inferring competence based on facial appearance, a system 1 process, could influence people's voting decisions. They asked volunteers to evaluate the competence — as well as other factors such as attractiveness, likeability and trustworthiness — of recent candidates for the U.S. Senate and. House of Representatives, based on the candidates' photographs. The ratings of competence, but not the other factors, could be used to predict the outcomes of the elections with an accuracy of about 70 percent.
How exactly does someone judge a face as competent? In a related "Perspective," Leslie Zebrowitz and Joann Montepare say that the candidates perceived as less competent probably looked more "babyfaced" than their opponents (round faces, large eyes, etc.), since people often interpret this as a sign of being submissive, naïve and weak.
Kathy Wren
9 June 2005
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