The right look: Conservative politicians look better and voters reward it

Berggren, Niclas; Jordahl, Henrik; Poutvaara, Panu

doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2016.12.008

Cited by 80 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Each participant rated the attractiveness of 20 photographs that were selected and ordered randomly from the sample of 800 candidates . Answers to the beauty question are coded on the same 1–5 scale used by Berggren, Jordahl, and Poutvaara () . Participants also indicated whether they recognized the persons they rated; we exclude recognized photo observations from our analysis.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Past studies have documented a beauty premium with magnitudes differing based on the type of election and the degree to which voters are informed. Berggren, Jordahl, and Poutvaara () find that the beauty premium is significant for both national and low‐profile elections in Finland, but that it matters more for particular candidates (right‐leaning candidates) in particular elections (low‐profile elections). Berggren, Jordahl, and Poutvaara () finds that the beauty premium is larger for nonincumbent candidates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…King and Leigh () and Berggren, Jordahl, and Poutvaara () find evidence of the beauty premium in Australia and Finland, with an increase in beauty associated with a significant increase in vote share. Berggren, Jordahl, and Poutvaara () observe that in Finland, right‐wing candidates look better than left‐wing candidates, and candidates on the right experience a larger beauty premium relative to those on the left, but only in low‐profile elections. Todorov et al () find that judgments of competency based on 1‐second exposures to photos of two U.S. Congressional candidates predict nearly 70% of elections.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The wording of the question and possible answers to the beauty question are similar to that used by Berggren, Jordahl, and Poutvaara (). Our survey also asked the respondent to rate the competence of the person in the photo; we do not consider competence in this analysis.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Information and the Beauty Premium in Political Elections

Jones

Price

2017

Contemporary Economic Policy

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We use data on 800 candidates from the 2012 U.S. election cycle in U.S. and state congressional races to examine the degree to which beauty affects electoral outcomes. We find that a candidate that is one standard deviation more beautiful receives a 1.1 percentage point higher vote share and is 6.0 percentage points more likely to win the election. This beauty premium is larger in situations where voters are less likely to have more information about the candidate. The beauty premium is much smaller for U.S. congressional races than for state congressional races, and is also much smaller for incumbent candidates. In addition, we find a correlation that the beauty premium is lower when a candidate spends more money on the election. (JEL D72, J70)

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Information and the Beauty Premium in Political Elections

Jones

Price

2017

Contemporary Economic Policy

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“…While for space reasons we briefly review here only the general findings of the relevant literature, existing works have presented additional interesting findings. For instance, voters in winner‐take‐all plurality electoral systems are more prone to use candidate appearance as a heuristic device than voters in proportional systems (Stockemer and Praino, ); conservative candidates benefit more from their physical appearance than others (Berggren, Jordahl, and Poutvaara, ); attractive individuals are considered more knowledgeable and more persuasive (Palmer and Peterson, ); and good‐looking candidates benefit disproportionately from media exposure (Lenz and Lawson, ) and get a “break” when involved in scandals (Stockemer and Praino, ). A lot of work has also been done on understanding the underlying mechanism applied by voters (Hart, Ottati, and Krumdick, ; Stockemer and Praino, ).…”

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confidence: 99%

What Are Good‐Looking Candidates, and Can They Sway Election Results?*

Praino

Stockemer

2018

Social Science Quarterly

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Objective In this article, we address two major gaps in the understanding of the relationship between candidate attractiveness and electoral success. With the assistance of the Victoria Police Criminal Identification Unit in Melbourne, Australia, we show how good‐looking candidates look like by building the faces of six “ideal candidates” in terms of physical attractiveness. Utilizing our “ideal candidates,” we then investigate whether candidate attractiveness can actually sway electoral results. Methods We proceed in four distinct steps, using data from the 2008 U.S. House of Representatives elections. First, we collect data on candidate attractiveness. Second, we build our “ideal candidates” and obtain their attractiveness ranking. Third, we model the effect of candidate attractiveness on candidate vote margins. Fourth, we run four hypothetical scenarios that assess whether candidate attractiveness can sway the electoral results in marginal seats. Results About two‐thirds of marginal races would trigger a different winner if the actual loser looked like our ideal candidates. In addition, virtually every single marginal race would have had a different outcome if the unsuccessful candidate looked like our “ideal candidate” and the successful candidate was very unattractive. Conclusion Candidate attractiveness can sway electoral results, provided that elections are competitive.

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Peer desirability and academic achievement

Mehic

2024

J of Applied Econometrics

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SummaryUsing the random assignment of university engineering students to peer groups during introductory freshmen weeks, this paper studies how a student's parental income and facial attractiveness affect the grade outcomes of peers. The results show that exposure to highly desirable peers with respect to socioeconomic background and beauty improves grades. The results operate chiefly through a direct spillover channel and also through an indirect marriage market channel, through which exposure to high‐desirability peers improves well‐being. A field experiment suggests that the marriage market mechanism is likely to be limited to students not currently in a romantic relationship.

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The right look: Conservative politicians look better and voters reward it

Cited by 80 publications

References 41 publications

Information and the Beauty Premium in Political Elections

Information and the Beauty Premium in Political Elections

What Are Good‐Looking Candidates, and Can They Sway Election Results?*

Peer desirability and academic achievement

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