Facial Dominance and Electoral Success in Times of War and Peace
Do voters prefer dominant looking candidates in times of war? By replicating previous survey experiments, we find that respondents do prefer candidates with dominant facial features when war is salient. We then investigate whether these survey results generalize to the real world. Examining US Senat...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of Chicago Press
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127273 |
| _version_ | 1826206564202053632 |
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| author | Berinsky, Adam Chatfield, Sara Lenz, Gabriel |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science Berinsky, Adam Chatfield, Sara Lenz, Gabriel |
| author_sort | Berinsky, Adam |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Do voters prefer dominant looking candidates in times of war? By replicating previous survey experiments, we find that respondents do prefer candidates with dominant facial features when war is salient. We then investigate whether these survey results generalize to the real world. Examining US Senate elections from 1990 to 2006, we test whether voters prefer candidates with dominant facial features in wartime elections more than in peacetime elections. In contrast with the survey studies, we find that dominant-looking candidates appear to gain a slight advantage in all elections but have no special advantage in wartime contexts. We discuss possible explanations for the discrepancy between the findings and conduct additional experiments to investigate one possible explanation: additional information about candidates may rapidly erode the wartime preference for dominant looking candidates. Overall, our findings suggest that the dominance-war findings may not generalize to the real world. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:34:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/127273 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:34:37Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | University of Chicago Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1272732022-09-28T14:46:59Z Facial Dominance and Electoral Success in Times of War and Peace Berinsky, Adam Chatfield, Sara Lenz, Gabriel Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science Do voters prefer dominant looking candidates in times of war? By replicating previous survey experiments, we find that respondents do prefer candidates with dominant facial features when war is salient. We then investigate whether these survey results generalize to the real world. Examining US Senate elections from 1990 to 2006, we test whether voters prefer candidates with dominant facial features in wartime elections more than in peacetime elections. In contrast with the survey studies, we find that dominant-looking candidates appear to gain a slight advantage in all elections but have no special advantage in wartime contexts. We discuss possible explanations for the discrepancy between the findings and conduct additional experiments to investigate one possible explanation: additional information about candidates may rapidly erode the wartime preference for dominant looking candidates. Overall, our findings suggest that the dominance-war findings may not generalize to the real world. 2020-09-15T18:19:26Z 2020-09-15T18:19:26Z 2019-07 2020-06-04T18:58:56Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0022-3816 1468-2508 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127273 Berinsky, Adam J. et al. "Facial Dominance and Electoral Success in Times of War and Peace." Journal of Politics 81, 3 (July 2019): dx.doi.org/10.1086/703384 © 2019 Southern Political Science Association en http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/703384 Journal of Politics Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf University of Chicago Press University of Chicago Press |
| spellingShingle | Berinsky, Adam Chatfield, Sara Lenz, Gabriel Facial Dominance and Electoral Success in Times of War and Peace |
| title | Facial Dominance and Electoral Success in Times of War and Peace |
| title_full | Facial Dominance and Electoral Success in Times of War and Peace |
| title_fullStr | Facial Dominance and Electoral Success in Times of War and Peace |
| title_full_unstemmed | Facial Dominance and Electoral Success in Times of War and Peace |
| title_short | Facial Dominance and Electoral Success in Times of War and Peace |
| title_sort | facial dominance and electoral success in times of war and peace |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/127273 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT berinskyadam facialdominanceandelectoralsuccessintimesofwarandpeace AT chatfieldsara facialdominanceandelectoralsuccessintimesofwarandpeace AT lenzgabriel facialdominanceandelectoralsuccessintimesofwarandpeace |