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Candidates' Competence on Their Faces?

Oct. 22, 2007 -- First impressions of candidates' looks may predict the outcome of governors' elections.

So say Princeton University's Alexander Todorov, PhD, and Charles Ballew II.

They paired facial photos of the winner and runner-up in dozens of governors' races.

Prrinceton students looked at each set of photos and, in a split second, decided which person looked more competent.

"We never told our test subjects that they were looking at candidates for political office," Todorov says in a news release. "We only asked them to make a gut reaction response as to which unfamiliar face appeared more competent."

The students' quick picks for competent looks tended to be the election winners. That was true in hindsight and when the students made their judgment calls before elections.

But when the students had the chance to think it over instead of making a snap decision, they weren't as accurate in choosing the races' winners when they picked competent-looking candidates.

The students didn't cast any votes. So it's not clear if first impressions would alter their voting -- or whether the candidates lived up to their competent looks.

The researchers speculate that first impressions may sway undecided voters more than those with strong partisan views.

The findings appear in this week's early online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Todorov's team reached similar conclusions in 2005 when they studied photos of candidates for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

(Do candidates’ looks influence your choice? Tell us about it on WebMD's Voice Your Vote: Election ’08 message board.)