The rise and fall of politicians: The judged heights of Broadbent, Mulroney and Turner before and after the 1988 Canadian federal election.

Abstract

The relationship between perceived status in politics and judged physical stature is investigated. Comparison of estimated heights of Canadian federal party leaders before and after the 1988 federal election indicated that the losers. Broadbent and Turner, were judged to be shorter afterwards, while the winner, Mulroney, was judged taller. Although the relationship between status and judged height has previously been demonstrated, this result indicates that it is dynamic (i.e., election outcomes alter rated tallness). A gender effect also was noted. ResumeLe but de l'etude etait d'evaluer les effets de la conformite au parti politique ct de I'appui de l'auditoirc sur les impressions des gens a I'egard des personnages politiques. Les participants a l'etude devaient lire un discours qui, leur avait-on dit, avait ete prononce par un depute du nord de l'Ontario. Les participants ctaient tous d'avis que le depute avait prononce le meme discours en favcur de l'environnement, dans lequel il recommandait que soit refusee une demandc de coupe de bois d'oeuvre dans une region fragile sur le plan ecologique. On leur avait explique que la position adoptee par le depute cadrait avec celle de son parti ou qu'elle allait a l'encontre de celle-ci. On leur avait egalement dil que l'auditoire etait soit favorable, soit hostile a la position du politicien. Les resulfats ont montre que la conformile au parti et I'appui de l'audiloire influaient sur la facpn dont les participants perccvaient le politicien. La conformity au parti influenc,ail les perceptions relatives a l'integrite du politicien: celui-ci etait considere comme davantage integre s'il prononc,ait un discours non partisan, e'est-a-dire un discours qui deviait de la position de son parti. L'appui de l'auditoire influenc,ait egalement les perceptions liees a la force du politicien: le depute qui s'adressait a un auditoire hostile etait pergu comme plus fort que celui qui s'adressait a un auditoire favorable. Les resultats obtenus s'expliquent par les processus d'inference qui interviennent dans les jugements portes sur les personnages politiques.Our perception of the size of a stimulus in the environment and its relationship to its perceived status has been studied extensively. Early experi-

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