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

Author

Listed:
  • Poutvaara, Panu
  • Jordahl, Henrik
  • Berggren, Niclas

Abstract

Recent research has documented that competent-looking political candidates do better in US 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 2772 respondents of the facial appearance of 1785 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," Munich Reprints in Economics 19800, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:lmu:muenar:19800
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Hamermesh, Daniel S., 2006. "Changing looks and changing "discrimination": The beauty of economists," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 405-412, December.
    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, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(1), pages 36-49, March.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Berggren, Niclas & Jordahl, Henrik & Poutvaara, Panu, 2010. "The Right Look: Conservative Politicians Look Better and Their Voters Reward it," Ratio Working Papers 161, The Ratio Institute.
    3. 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.
    4. Liu, Biqiang & Li, Yaoqi, 2022. "Teddy-bear effect in service recovery," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    5. Geiler, Philipp & Renneboog, Luc & Zhao, Yang, 2018. "Beauty and appearance in corporate director elections," Other publications TiSEM ce2f700a-9a24-468d-a655-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. 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.
    7. 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).
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. repec:ces:ifofor:v:18:y:2017:i:1:p:37-43 is not listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    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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