People make systematic judgment errors by assigning their own political views to attractive or competent-looking candidates, according to recent study. Candidates who are perceived as competent, attractive, likable, or nonthreatening, based on their facial images, tend to win more votes in parliamentary, presidential, and subnational elections. This raises questions about the validity of using appearance to make voting decisions. Research shows that within milliseconds the human brain is able to interpret facial expressions and provide judgments about another person. Furthermore, it shows that this can have a positive influence on voting, improving a person’s ability to predict whether a political candidate is left or right-wing above chance level (55 to 62%). However, one problem with face-based inferences is that they are open to bias, and observers tend to favor their visual impressions whilst ignoring more accurate objective information. http://www.psypost.org/2016/08/peop...-more-attractive-candidates-study-finds-44315 Study: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pops.12256/abstract
In the 2004 campaign, exit interviews at several key polling stations found that most of the people who had voted for W thought that on several key issues W held positions they favored, but which were actually held by Kerry.
