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Faces of politicians: Babyfacedness predicts inferred competence but not electoral success

Author

Listed:
  • Poutvaara, Panu

    (Department of Economics, University of Helsinki)

  • Jordahl, Henrik

    (The Research Institute of Industrial Economics)

  • Berggren, Niclas

    (The Ratio Institute)

Abstract

Recent research has documented that competent-looking political candidates do better in U.S. elections and that babyfaced individuals are generally perceived to be less competent than maturefaced individuals. Taken together, this suggests that babyfaced political candidates are perceived as less competent and therefore fare worse in elections. We test this hypothesis, making use of photograph-based judgments by 2,772 respondents of the facial appearance of 1,785 Finnish political candidates. Our results confirm that babyfacedness is negatively related to inferred competence in politics. Despite this, babyfacedness is either unrelated or positively related to electoral success, depending on the sample of candidates.

Suggested Citation

  • Poutvaara, Panu & Jordahl, Henrik & Berggren, Niclas, 2009. "Faces of politicians: Babyfacedness predicts inferred competence but not electoral success," Ratio Working Papers 139, The Ratio Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0139
    Note: Forthcoming in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hamermesh, Daniel S., 2006. "Changing looks and changing "discrimination": The beauty of economists," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 405-412, December.
    2. Lee, David S., 2008. "Randomized experiments from non-random selection in U.S. House elections," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 675-697, February.
    3. Gerald J. Gorn & Yuwei Jiang & Gita Venkataramani Johar, 2008. "Babyfaces, Trait Inferences, and Company Evaluations in a Public Relations Crisis," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(1), pages 36-49, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Niclas Berggren & Henrik Jordahl & Panu Poutvaara, 2010. "The Right Look: Conservative Politicians Look Better and their Voters Reward it," CESifo Working Paper Series 3310, CESifo.
    2. Berggren, Niclas & Jordahl, Henrik & Poutvaara, Panu, 2017. "The right look: Conservative politicians look better and voters reward it," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 79-86.
    3. Harry Garretsen & Janka I. Stoker & Rob Alessie & Joris Lammers, 2014. "Simply a Matter of Luck & Looks? Predicting Elections when Both the World Economy and the Psychology of Faces Count," CESifo Working Paper Series 4857, CESifo.
    4. Chen, Yuzhou & Sealy, Chezham L. & Swanquist, Quinn T. & Whited, Robert L., 2024. "Audit partner facial traits, gender, and career outcomes," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    5. Panu Poutvaara, 2017. "Beauty in Politics," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 18(01), pages 37-43, April.
    6. Geiler, Philipp & Renneboog, Luc & Zhao, Yang, 2018. "Beauty and appearance in corporate director elections," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1-12.
    7. Preclik Christopher-David, 2024. "From Gerontocratic Rule to Political Adultism: The Experiential Bias in Germany’s Aging Electoral Democracy and the Limitations of a Vote 16 Policy," Statistics, Politics and Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 137-167.
    8. repec:ces:ifofor:v:18:y:2017:i:1:p:37-43 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Liu, Biqiang & Li, Yaoqi, 2022. "Teddy-bear effect in service recovery," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    10. Lv, Xingyang & Liu, Yue & Luo, Jingjing & Liu, Yuqing & Li, Chunxiao, 2021. "Does a cute artificial intelligence assistant soften the blow? The impact of cuteness on customer tolerance of assistant service failure," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    11. Daniel E Re & David W Hunter & Vinet Coetzee & Bernard P Tiddeman & Dengke Xiao & Lisa M DeBruine & Benedict C Jones & David I Perrett, 2013. "Looking Like a Leader–Facial Shape Predicts Perceived Height and Leadership Ability," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-10, December.
    12. Agnihotri, Arpita & Bhattacharya, Saurabh & Vrontis, Demetris, 2024. "Can salespersons help firms overcome brand image crisis? Role of facial appearance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Babyfacedness; Competence; Beauty; Trustworthiness; Elections;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • J70 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - General

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